


Fancy Meeting You Here

by painted_lady12



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ABO elements, Anal Fingering, Angst and Feels, Angst and Porn, Bisexual Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Blow Jobs, Covert Operation, Drug Use, Dubious Consent, Escort Service, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gangs, Gay, Hermaphrodite Galra, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Oral Sex, Protective Lance (Voltron), Rape/Non-con Elements, Reunions, Slave Trade, Smut, Undercover Missions, Vaginal Sex, Voyeurism, Wall Sex, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 01:55:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 66,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15062510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/painted_lady12/pseuds/painted_lady12
Summary: AKALance is sent on a very simple mission: set up a trade deal between a cut off planet and the rest of the solar system.  Allura and Shiro insist that it will be an easy, in and out affair.Of course, though, there are problems.  Namely, that the planet is running a sex slave operation, and as Lance digs deeper into it, he finds someone familiar already attempting to take them down from the inside.  Can him and Keith manage to work together without blowing Keith's cover?  How far is Lance willing to go to help him maintain that cover?  Most importantly, will Lance be able to sit idly by as Keith continues to gather intelligence while posing as a sex slave?This fic is 14 chapters with an epilogue





	1. Lethyr

**Author's Note:**

> Oh hey there!
> 
> I would like to make sure some warnings are in place: this fic will deal largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. In no way do I condone any of the actions taken here. Forced sex work is rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I just liked the idea of Keith going undercover to take an operation like this down, and imagined what would happen if Lance had just happened upon him doing it. Thus, this was born. 
> 
> Some important notes: This takes place after Shiro steps back in as black paladin and Keith leaves to join the Blades. They will be talking a lot about this weird metal called Coppon. All you need to know about it is that it’s Phoem’s most valuable resource. 
> 
> If this fic makes you feel some type of way, reach out to a loved one or a professional. 
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Allura had given him one job.  Which, all things considered, should have been very easy.  Him and Shiro were given the task of visiting one of the nearby planets called Phoem to negotiate trade deals for the solar system.  If he managed to procure the trade deal, the entire solar system agreed to sign on to the Voltron Alliance.

 

On paper it seems really, really easy.

 

So when Allura called Shiro back due to an issue with the castle, Shiro had looked at Lance with pride, patting him reassuringly on the back before Lance took off.

 

“It’ll be an easy mission, in and out.  Allura said that they’re a very peaceful planet.”

 

So as Shiro’s ass walked away, Lance felt pretty fucking good about the whole thing.

 

It went wrong starting with when he landed.  He didn’t take his lion, of course, and upon landing he was quickly descended upon by about a swarm of different merchants saying that they could keep his ship safe for a low price of 500 dizmals (which was, as far as Lance knew, three billion dollars) he immediately shooed them away.

 

He was very careful with the safety features when he got out of the ship, clicking to lock it multiple times and checking to make sure there weren’t any easy ins, and looked around in the city he found himself in.

 

The best description he could come up with for the city was… tin cans stacked on top of tin cans.  It was haphazardly built, like they’d tried to raise the city from nothing overnight. Buildings were wobbly and made Lance nervous just looking at them.  The buildings bowed towards each other eerily, people wandering around with tough looks on their faces.

 

Lance quickly realized that Allura had very outdated information about the Phoemites, because they were all grizzled and gnarled.  A lot of them had machetes and knives displayed in bright colors on their belts, with shaved hair and tattoos galore. They looked uncannily like angry yodas with their wrinkled faces and short stature.  They only hit up to Lance’s shoulder, and immediately some of the taller Phoemites put their hands to their weapons, eyeing Lance like either a threat or a treat.

 

He knew that he needed to get to the capitol building, but he had no idea where the capitol building was.  Usually when a government was alerted to one of the members of Voltron arriving they prepared a welcome party.  Lance was honestly confused.

 

Upon contacting Allura, she was able to give him coordinates for the building, and promised that she would reach out to her contacts to see what went wrong.

 

The building was a thirty minute walk from him, so Lance started trudging forth, walking down the streets.  Numerous Phoemites snarled at him, or hurried their children into their homes. Lance had never felt less wanted anywhere.

 

The closer he got to the capitol, the more the city started to clean up.  The Phoemites became sparse, and Lance caught the eye of a few creatures not unlike humans.  Lance noticed a few of them watching him with interest as he made his way to the place where he was supposed to meet with the Grande Ambassador.

 

When he got to the capitol, he was completely stunned.

 

It was just as haphazardly built, but with much nicer materials.  It was marble and granite and fine wood and jewels and statues thrown together in a hodge-podge of expensive taste.  There were bright, flashing signs advertising… something. He turned on his translation contacts and riddled out a few names, including: _Company Express, Tail in the Mail,_ and _Sugar Sweet_

 

They looked like odd food shops, and Lance frowned when he realized that the majority of the people walking around were a completely foreign species.  Unlike the Phoemites they all looked extremely happy to be there, and were walking around in vapid packs. Lance made his way up the dirty marble steps of the capitol building, and saw to his relief that there was a small group of people at the top of the steps with a sign that translated to _Voltron Alliance Rep._

 

Lance got to them and sighed in relief, telling them about his horrendous trip in.  They apologized, and explained that there were other more urgent matters to attend to.  They made sure to express their deepest apologies and offered up a small golden card.

 

“The Grande Ambassador is a very busy man.  I’ll be bringing you directly to him for your appointment.  As a sign of apologies, this is his personal guest unlimited access card for the shops nearby.  Don’t have too much fun, or we’ll never see you!”

 

The dignitary was beaming at him with bubblegum pink eyes and black hair brushed back far enough that Lance saw she had a scar just above her ear.

 

“Where is this for, exactly?”

 

Giggling, she gestured around her.  “Everywhere! Your quarters will be in the casino, and this will be good for unlimited chips, unlimited drinks, and our favorite, unlimited entertainment.”

 

She waggled her dark eyebrows at Lance, who gulped and tried his best not to imagine himself sitting pretty at a roulette table with girls off each arm, drinking a martini.

 

It was hard not to imagine it.  Also, in this fantasy, he had a mustache.

 

Lance was suddenly dropped off in a small office, where an assistant became flustered, telling Lance to wait a moment while she got her boss.

 

That left Lance alone in this grimy office, which made him fiddle uncomfortably with some of the knick knacks.  He spent a little time observing the species in the photographs. First, he noticed that none of the species in the photographs on the wall were Phoemites.  Second, they were all oddly human looking. Their eyes were all brightly colored pastels, and most of them had wider hips. Their skin all glowed a little blue, especially in the fluorescents in the office.  It was hard to tell outside, but his guide and the assistant had skin that was clearly tinged with a teal tone.

 

The assistant came out and smiled endearingly at Lance.  “My boss says that you can come in.”

 

Relieved, Lance stood up straighter, excited to finally meet someone who might actually be able to talk to him.

 

Upon opening the door, though, Lance stopped dead in his tracks.

 

The man sitting at the desk was leaning back in ecstasy.  The desk itself was all multicolored glass, and to Lance’s horror the boss, who was supposedly the Grande Ambassador, had his pants around his ankles, legs pushed apart.  Someone decked out in a leather corset coming up to just below their pecs and skin-tight leather leggings was on their knees between the Ambassador’s legs, dipping and sucking at what Lance could only assume to be his dick.

 

Face flaring red, Lance mumbled, “Um, I’m here for…”

 

The Ambassador put up one finger, his other hand lacing into the dark hair of his companion.  Lance could see a collar around their pale neck, and he wondered wildly if they were a sex slave.

 

The Ambassador’s eyes were closed happily, and his mouth was open, two blue tongues lolling out in excitement.

 

His deep voice huffed and gasped out a few more times, holding the head of the dark haired companion between his legs, appearing to come to completion in the mouth of the… concubine?  Prostitute?

 

Still completely aghast, Lance watched as the companion popped off the eerily human-like dick of the Ambassador, and the man in question hitched his pants up, beaming over at Lance.

 

“In this line of work, it’s very hard to find time to relax.  I figured our appointment will be quite short, which is why I allowed my escort in.”

 

Stunned, Lance stuttered out, “Quite… short?”

 

“Yes, yes!” the Grande Ambassador drew himself up to full height in his navy suit, gesturing to a chair across from him.  The companion was still kneeling on the ground, bowing reverently.

 

Finally, this mission was starting to go right.  “Alright, so I have some initial offers from quite a few neighboring systems who would like to start trading with you.  Your planet is rich in a special type of metal that is worth a ridiculous amount of money due to its durability, called…”

 

The Ambassador waved his hand around.  “Right, right, the Coppon,” he started fiddling with a bar that was pierced in his ear, “I will have to say that I politely decline all desires to trade with nearby systems.  We have explicit laws forbidding the export of Coppon to any other planet.”

 

Did… did he just say no?

 

“I think you should at least look at the initial plans that the nearby systems have drafted up…” Lance unrolled the notes that Allura had sent him with and started to walk towards the Ambassador, who shook his head dismissively.

 

“We don’t export.  No negotiations can change that.  Please, while you’re here enjoy our accommodations!  We love hosting foreigners here at our casino.”

 

Lance was stunned.  Not only did the Ambassador not even entertain the idea of a trade deal, but he was now telling Lance to go enjoy the casino?!

 

“I… I… I’m not a gambler,” Lance mumbled out, completely at a loss.

 

“Ah, I see!  You’re more interested in private entertainment then, yes?” he patted the head of the companion between his knees, encouraging them to stand up.

 

The companion stood up to look at Lance, and his face was completely impassive, which was the only reason that Lance was able to not completely lose his cool.  

 

Standing there, in all his angsty, red paladin glory, dressed like a dominatrix, was Keith.  His dark hair fell into his face attractively, and the collar on his neck hugged his throat as he swallowed, the only indication that he was the slightest bit uncomfortable.

 

“I… what?” Lance was completely lost now, trying to figure out where this simple mission went wrong between landing in the slums, being told he should enjoy the casino, and finding Keith.  Wasn't he supposed to be with the Blade of Marmora, anyway?!  Why was he working as some sort of... concubine!?

 

“This here is Lethyr,” the Ambassador slapped Keith’s ass, who didn’t even blink, “He’ll do anything you’d like.  He’s my favorite this week, but I’d be willing to part with him to help make up for the trade talks being so short.”

 

Maybe Lance walked into the wrong room.  Maybe Lance landed on the wrong planet, or landed in the wrong reality, but what was currently happening could not possibly be his real life.

 

“What… what do you mean?” Lance was still dumbfounded, but quickly regretted the question as the Ambassador chuckled wholeheartedly.

 

Coming over and clapping Lance on the shoulder, he gestured towards Keith, who was still managing to remain cool and collected, somehow.  “Lethyr is one of our newest members of the casino’s well stocked escort service. Cortana should have given you a gold card, yes?”

Lance weakly held the card up, which was the one time that Keith’s facade faltered for just a second, his eyes flicking over the look at the gold card clutched in between Lance’s fingers.

 

“Brilliant!  Anyway, you’re welcome to stay a few days and enjoy our hospitality, then go back and tell your leaders that after long and difficult deliberation the Phoem people have proven to be stubborn and unreasonable.”

 

It… wasn’t technically wrong, Lance thought warily, feeling skeevy at just the idea of lying about trade talks so that he could get a few days in a casino… or even worse, with an escort service.  Or, even _worse_ worse, with Keith as his escort.

 

“You won’t even listen to the proposal?” Lance said slowly, trying to gauge how serious the Ambassador was being.

 

“That is what I’m saying, yes,” the Ambassador said cheerily, starting to walk towards the door with Lance.  “I’m also taking your silence as permission, and I’ve decided that I’ll let you borrow Lethyr for the evening.  I’ll have him sent up within the hour. Do you have any special requests?”

“I… no, wait, I don’t…” Lance looked back wildly at Keith.  The darker boy appeared to twitch, but Lance wasn’t sure if that was just his own projection of overwhelming emotions.

 

The Ambassador just chuckled good-naturedly again, patting Lance on the head.  “No worries, m’boy, I saw the way you watched him work. Don’t worry, you’ll have a front row seat soon enough.”

 

Then, without any warning, the door to the office was closing, and Lance stood outside the door with his jaw hinged open.

 

The assistant came up to him.  “Thank you for coming! I have a bell boy coming to take you to your room downstairs.”

 

The casino was underneath the capitol building?!  Like, in the same fucking building?!

 

Yes, that was it.  Lance knew that he had finally gone insane.  That had to be what was happening. It was the only reasonable explanation.

 

Someone showed him to his rooms, and Lance dropped his backpack on the floor of the expansive space, decked out with silken bed sheets and oddly mismatching metallic accents.  Lance fell backwards onto his couch, at a loss.

 

He finally found it in himself to take the communicator out of his bag, dialing to reach Allura.

 

A picture on the screen was showing Allura and Coran on the bridge with Pidge, who was busy typing away on her monitor.

 

“ _Lance, good!  You completed your negotiations with the Phoemites incredibly quickly…”_

 

Groaning, Lance placed the communicator on the coffee table in front of him, burying his face in his hands.  “They wouldn’t even listen to me, Allura. They insisted that they strictly prohibit exports.”

 

Blinking in shock, Allura asked, “Have you spoken to the Grande Ambassador?”

 

“Yes.”

 

She bit her lip.  “This trade deal is the backbone of our negotiations with this entire solar system.  If we don’t get this deal hammered out we lose twelve planets from our ranks.”

 

“He wouldn’t even hear me out, Allura.  Also, he…” Lance froze suddenly, deciding that it was best if he not mention Keith, “... he wants me to stay at their casino a few days.”

 

Coran perked up, mustache twitching.  “Ah, Lance, that’s perfect! It’ll give you the chance to schmooze the members of government to convince them to alter their export regulations!”

 

Lance opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.  “I don’t think they’re going to change their mind.”

 

“It can’t hurt to try, Lance!  We’re counting on you, so go gamble!” Coran looked satisfied with his declaration, Allura nodding in agreement.

 

Pidge looked up from her computer suddenly, smirking.  “Come on, Lance, you can’t screw something this easy up.”

 

Her words stung, and he turned off the communicator, a new sense of determination overwhelming him.

 

He would be able to do this.  He would be able to negotiate with these asshole aliens.  Nothing could go wrong!

 

(Turns out, everything can go wrong, but that’s later in the story.)

 

For now, though, there was a knock on Lance’s door, and Lance opened it without thinking, mouth falling open as Keith stood just outside of his door, leather get-up even tighter than he remembered.  

 

“I’m Lethyr, and I’ve been sent by the Ambassador to keep you company for the remainder of the evening,” his voice was smooth and smoky, and Lance just gaped at Keith before moving to the side to let him in.

 

The second the door was closed, Lance was being pressed back against it by a very angry looking paladin.

 

“What the hell, Lance!?” Keith hissed, rage practically rolling off of him in waves.  “What are you doing here?”

 

“What am I doing here?!  What are _you_ doing here?  Did you leave the Blades?”

Hissing, Keith narrowed his eyes, pressing his finger to his lips.  “Keep your voice down.”

 

Finally, Lance put it together.  “You’re… undercover, aren’t you?”

 

Keith backed up and let Lance go, dark eyes glaring at him as he started clapping dramatically.  “Look, everyone, Lance did a smart! If you stick around for a few years maybe he’ll do another one!”

 

“That’s unnecessary,” Lance grumbled, crossing his arms and fuming.

 

“You still haven’t answered my question.  What are you doing here?” Keith was watching Lance, waiting for an answer.

 

“I mean, you were in the room, weren’t you?  I’m here to negotiate trade agreements…”

 

Keith scoffed, waving that off.  “No, that can’t be it. No idiot in this solar system would try to trade with this planet.  It’s crawling with non-native gangs and has ties to the Galra. That’s why I’m here. I’m undercover and am gathering intel on how they’re managing to supply the Galra with Coppon for their weapons, and about their importation of alien escorts. This has been a month-long project and...”

 

Gasping, Lance pointed at Keith accusingly.  “You mean you’ve been a fucking escort for a whole month?”

 

Narrowing his eyes, Keith muttered, “Of course that’s what you’re so worried about.”

 

“You get why I’m concerned though, right?  What if you catch something, or…”

 

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Keith muttered, “Diseases are not transmittable between species, dingus.  That’s why they only keep _other_ species as escorts  On top of that, the Dalmites aren’t genetically compatible with humans or Galra or anyone except themselves and the Phoemites.  That’s why it works. No one is going to accidentally knock up any of the escorts.”

 

“Wait, you mean these people aren’t Phoemites at all?”

 

Fisting a tuft of his own hair, Keith took a few deep breaths, looking like he was going to implode.  “Okay, okay, maybe I haven’t been completely clear here. Let me start at the beginning. Hopefully you’ll be able to keep up.”

 

Lance fell back onto the couch, trying his best to not stare at Keith’s exposed pecs or the clear bulge in his leggings where his flaccid dick was perched.

 

“I’m listening.”

 

Keith started pacing, biting his lips as the words started to form in his head.

 

“So about a month and a half ago I went undercover in a Galra transport vessel trying to figure out where they were receiving their shipments of certain rare metals from.  While investigating, I saw that there was an entire room on the vessel that wasn’t officially on the books. After I checked the room out, I discovered that there were a group of attractive aliens being transported with the rest of the military cargo.  Which, the Blades thought was odd, so they assigned me to figure out where they were being brought. I did a little digging and discovered that the room transporting the aliens always went off the books for a few days, and then went back on the books after visiting a moon orbiting Phoem.  I went with the ship to the moon and found that the Galra were selling foreign aliens to use as sex slaves in exchange for large shipments of Coppon, the metal that is made exclusively on this planet. It’s vital to the creation of several Galra weapons, and if we shut down the covert trade deals, the production of numerous weapons of mass destruction for the Galra would stop.”

 

The whole story spun around in Lance’s head like a top.  He bit his chapped lip, blue eyes thoughtful. “So the Blades assigned you to go undercover to gather intel on the operation?”

 

Keith nodded.  “I asked to be assigned here.  I want to take down this skeevy operation, and we can’t do that until we understand how it works.  I’ve managed to become the favorite of a few high ranking officials here and I’ve gotten invaluable intelligence relating to the deal.  I’m literally only a week away from being present for a huge covert negotiation with the Galra, where I will be able to finally figure out which Galra generals were in on the deals so that the Blade can start dismantling the operation from the inside.”

 

Aghast, Lance muttered, “Those sons of bitches!  Telling me they don’t export…”

 

Mouthing falling open, Keith groaned.  “With all of what I just told you, the part that sticks out is _that_!?”

 

“Well, yeah!  Allura told me that this would be an easy job.  I’m trying not to screw it up, but the Ambassador is being an asshole!”

 

Narrowing his eyes, Keith came up to Lance, pointing at his chest aggressively.  “I’ve been working on this case for weeks, and have sacrificed a whole lot to get this far.  I will not have you come in and Lance-ing this thing up!”

 

“‘Lance-ing it up?’  What the hell does that mean?” Lance stood up now, making Keith take a few steps back, dark purple eyes shocked at the assertion.

 

“It means ruining the cover I’ve worked to maintain.  I will not let you screw this up for me.”

 

Snorting, Lance muttered, “I wasn’t planning on it!  Unless…”

 

“Don’t you dare..”

 

“That’s it!” Lance brightened up considerably, dark complexion breaking out into a conspiratory smile.  “If I manage to get myself in on those negotiations, I can talk to them about our trade deals!”

 

They both stared at each other in silence for a minute, before Keith grit out, “You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?”

 

“No, no it makes perfect sense!  I just need to have an ear on the ground so I know what to entice them with.  It’ll be easy after that!” Lance was beaming, and Keith was actually twitching now.

 

“You can’t reason with these people,” Keith hissed, “They aren’t even native to this planet.  They’re a race of travellers who visited and never left. They took over most of the natural resources and forced the Phoemite population to poorly built slums.  The only thing they’re interested in are sex and drugs. They don’t even use the metal for anything of their own, it just sits in huge storage containers until the Galra come trade the slaves away, one container at a time.”

 

Shaking his head, Lance fell onto the couch again, crestfallen.  “Maybe I should just report back to Allura that this is a lost cause.”

 

“No!” Keith suddenly grabbed Lance by the shoulders, a soft floral scent drifting over to Lance’s nose and making him perk up in interest, “No, I need you to stay until I’m done with this mission.”

 

“I thought you said you didn’t want me ‘Lance-ing it up’?” Lance grumbled bitterly, crossing his arms.

 

“I need you to stay on the planet.  Not with me, of course, you can do whatever you want, but I need your golden access card.  Once I get the names of the Galra generals I’m scheduled for extraction, which means I have to get a few things before I’m taken away.  Namely, the record of all of the slaves and where they were taken from so that when we dismantle the operation I can make sure they all make it home safely.  The Blades don’t care about them, but I need to do this. If you just give me the card,” Keith came up into Lance’s space, patting down his pockets.

 

Lance grinned.  “Oh, so you do need my help?”

 

“Have you been listening to anything…”

 

“I have,” Lance’s face suddenly softened, blue eyes melting into soft ocean tones before Keith’s eyes, “You’ve been working to save a whole bunch of people, Keith style.  Let me help. I don’t want these people to suffer any more than you do.”

 

It was then that Keith realized that he was incredibly close to Lance, their faces only a few inches apart, and Keith was still made up to look like an escort, eyelashes long and dark and skin flawless.

 

“So you’ll help?”

 

Nodding, Lance reached into the pocket in the inside of his jacket, extracting the card.  “If I give this to you, they’re going to get suspicious. I think the safest bet is for you to send me in looking for the records.”

 

Keith opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it, the wheels in his head turning.  “I don’t think that…”

 

Lance’s voice suddenly deepened into something broody, mocking Keith from earlier.  “ _I’ve been working on this case for weeks, and have sacrificed a whole lot to get this far.”_

 

Wrinkling his nose cutely, Keith muttered, “Not funny…”

 

“Hell yeah it isn’t funny.  I came here for a simple trade deal and now I discover that there is a whole sex trafficking ring that needs to be dismantled?  How can you expect me to just walk away? Also, I thought you were smarter than this. If you’ve been working on this case for weeks, why would you risk being discovered because you just wouldn’t let me help you?”

 

His words softened towards the end, the honest question hanging in the air.  They stood, still uncannily close together in the hotel room, and Keith furrowed his brow, taking a few steps back and contemplating.

 

“I… you’re right,” Keith deflated onto the coffee table, burying his face in his hands.  “You’re right. I can’t risk that. I… I’ll let you help…”

 

Lance laughed in victory, but Keith cut him off.

 

“...on one condition!”

 

“Hit me!” Lance said happily, only realizing just afterwards how odd that sounded, and feeling his mood sour.

 

“No matter what happens, you cannot blow my cover in any way.  Even if they make me do unspeakable things, even if they try to kill me, you cannot do anything to show that we’re anything more than just occasional companions.”

 

Lance opened his mouth to argue, but Keith put his hand over the other man’s mouth, fixing Lance with a serious stare.

 

“I need you to promise me,” he said again, softer this time, and when he moved his hand away from Lance’s mouth, he was surprised to find that Lance nodded.

 

“I don’t like it, but I trust you,” Lance whispered, and Keith felt their closeness like a hot itch under his skin.  He backed up a few paces, trying to clear his head but unable to stop the words _I trust you_ from spinning around in his head.

 

“Okay, then.  Let’s get to work.”

 

***

 

The Grande Ambassador sat perched on a tall throne in the casino, one of his most trusted escorts settled on the ground between his legs, looking out over the crowd in interest.  There were people in the casino from all over the galaxy, all brought in by the Galra to entertain their citizens.

 

“I’m glad that the princess sent the one we asked for.  He will be a delicious addition to our court. Imagine, being able to boast that you have a paladin of Voltron in your escort service.”

 

The escort, Selma, flicked her cat ears irritably, yellow Galran eyes searching the crowd.  “I imagine that would be incredibly good for business, master.”

 

The man ran his stubby fingers through the fur on the top of her head, and she closed her eyes, purring at the touch.  

 

“Have we taken care of his ship?” the Ambassador asked Selma quietly, who stretched and nodded, yawning so that her fangs flashed prettily in the bright lights of the casino.  

 

“It’s been dealt with.”

 

“What about the communicator?”

 

Selma waved her hand in dismissal.  “We’ll allow that to stay on for a few more days so that the princess doesn’t get suspicious.”

 

“Good,” the Ambassador smiled with his row of sharp teeth covering his blue tongues, “He’ll be ours, soon.  Then I’ll have a new favorite toy. I hope you don’t mind, my dear.”

 

“Of course not, master,” she deadpanned.  Without making a sound, Selma sighed in relief, thanking whatever deity sent Lance to be her replacement.

 

The bright flashing lights in the casino threw the Dalmites into sharp relief, their green-blue skin reflecting eerily against their chosen companions, who were draped in varying states of undress around the room.  

 

The Ambassador grinned maliciously then, licking his lips as he muttered, “I hope our guest is enjoying his present.”

 


	2. Paolo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith explains more about what it's like to be an escort, and stuns Lance with a request. Later, Lance sits down for one hell of a show

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies
> 
> I'm going to name a chapter after different escorts enslaved, for a reason that will be explained later on in the fic.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has commented and given me kudos<3 It's really encouraging and helps me find the motivation to continue writing. This is probably going to be my longest Voltron fic ever, and I'm so excited to see how it turns out
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with forced sex work and sexual slavery. Forced sex is rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic in no way condones the actions taken, and in fact will work towards Lance and Keith trying to take down the operation. Please keep this in mind with comments, questions, and concerns.
> 
> NOTE: It recently occurred to me that my tumblr was being stupid and I wasn't receiving notifications from messages. I fixed the problem, so if any of you want to reach out to me, please contact me via my tumblr [painted-lady12](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/painted-lady12) or my twitter [painted_lady12](https://twitter.com/painted_lady12?lang=en)
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

“You can’t tell the others, either.  They’d just come try to rescue me or something.  You have to pretend like everything is going according to plan,” Keith was watching Lance carefully, gauging his reaction.

 

“I don’t know how long I can lie to the princess…”

 

“One week,” Keith prompted, suddenly looking extremely desperate.  “For me.”

 

Who knew the broody asshole had such good puppy dog eyes?

 

Lance let out a breath, saying softly, “Fine, fine.”

 

Keith was pacing now, biting his lip and mumbling something under his breath.

 

“You okay, dude?” Lance went to touch Keith, but he just leaned back, fiddling with one of the straps on his corset.

 

“We have a problem.”

 

Cocking his head to the side, Lance asked, “What, did you make a mistake?  I’m sure we can fix it…”

 

“No, no, that’s not it…” Lance was stunned to see that Keith was sweating, hands shaking a little in the dim lighting.  “I just… the way they keep track of the escorts here is by assigning them handlers. My handler knew that I came up here with the express purpose of… entertaining you.”

 

At those words his face reddened further, and Lance’s mouth hung open, still not seeing the problem.  “Just tell her that we did it.”

 

Keith shook his head, biting his lip and turning around, unable to look Lance in the eye as he said the next thing.  “I can’t lie. They do a body check after each partner so that we don’t accidentally pass along infections. I can’t get sick from a sexually transmitted infection from the Dalmites, but if I’m not properly… sanitized… then I can still be a carrier.”

 

Was the room suddenly very hot?  Someone must have cranked up the heat, because Lance felt himself practically steaming from tip to toe.  He knew his face must be red, which made his freckles blend in with the rest of his dark skin and it always annoyed him but…

 

Keith was standing there, brushing his dark hair back from his red face as he set his gaze on Lance.

 

“Here goes nothing,” Keith said suddenly, stepping towards Lance quickly and pushing at his left shoulder.  Lance started backing up without question, unable to break eye contact with Keith as he led him all the way to the bed, his knees folding onto the covers.

 

“Keith, buddy, you don’t…”

 

Shaking his head, Keith leaned forward until his lips were pressed right up against the sensitive skin under Lance’s ear.  A small puff of breath made Lance’s brain completely blank out, his skin there tingling like it was touched with electricity.

 

“We don’t have to go all the way.  I think the easiest would be for me to blow you, so why don’t you be a good boy and lean back for me?”

 

Scrambling back, Lance pulled his legs up to his chest.  “No way, Keith! This is just too weird. I… I don’t…”

 

“You can’t tell me that you don’t want it,” Keith was straddling Lance now, but was respectfully keeping his hands off of him. “I saw the way you looked at me when we used to train together.”

 

Lance had never heard Keith sound like this- he thought he knew all of Keith’s tones of voice, from his tortured angst voice to his annoyed at the world voice, but this was wholly new.  It was sultry and raspy and Lance couldn’t deny that it was turning him on a bit.

 

“I… I’m not going to lie, I did want this.  Not like this, though. I… want it to be your choice,” Lance’s breath came out in a rush as Keith gently brushed a lock of hair out of his own face, looking down at Lance like he was some sort of adorable plaything.  

 

“This is my choice, Lance.  This is… it’s an excuse, to be frank,” Keith’s hands came to rest on the bedspread on either side of Lance’s head, leaning his nose to be inches away from Lance.  “I’ve wanted you for so long.”

 

A shiver went down Lance’s back as he couldn’t help but flicking his gaze hungrily around Keith’s face, from his plump pink lips to his half-lidded purple eyes.  Keith’s long hair was tickling his forehead, but Keith didn’t move in, breathing out a warm huff.

 

“You’re messing with me,” Lance accused suddenly, anxiety clutching at his chest.  He sat up, almost bonking heads with Keith in an effort to scoot away. “You just want to get this over with.”

 

Lance wasn’t sure how he knew, exactly, but there was something about Keith’s tone of voice and body language that wasn’t sitting right with him.  At his scurrying away, Keith’s face closed off, eyes lowering to the bedspread in front of him, hands falling uselessly between his bent legs.

 

“You’re right,” Keith muttered, staring at his soft hands, “I’ve been here for too long.”

 

Coming up on his knees now, though, he fixed Lance with a serious stare.  “Okay, then, I’ll be honest. I need to suck your dick otherwise it might blow my cover.  I’m trying to keep myself alive, and free hundreds of imprisoned aliens. Is this honesty getting you hot?  Are you feeling it now?”

 

Blinking, Lance felt his stomach clench, fingers digging into the bedsheets.  “At least it isn’t a lie.”

 

His voice was small as Keith looked up at him, searching for something before looking back down.

 

“I wasn’t lying about wanting to do this.  I could just fuck you and get it over with, or let you jerk off onto me.  I figured it would be… more pleasurable for you this way.”

 

This time his blush returned, and Lance felt himself relaxing, defenses lowering.  

 

“I… are you sure?”

 

Biting his lip attractively, Keith looked at him and nodded, purple eyes shining out from his dark tresses with determination.

 

“I can make it so good for you,” Keith promised, breath hitching.  “I’m good at this. Let me do this.”

 

Breathing deeply and closing his eyes, Lance finally conceded.  “Alright.”

 

Keith must have been holding himself back, because the second that Lance gave him permission he launched towards him, fingers making quick work of his belt.

 

“Wait,” Lance growled as his pants were halfway down his legs.  Keith looked up with mild annoyance, which softened when he noticed how vulnerable Lance looked.  “Can we kiss first?”

 

It was so unexpected that Keith had to sit for a moment before the words really hit him, making him pause in his mission to get Lance’s pants off and coming up on his hands and knees to press Lance back into the pillows, sharp cheeks more clearly defined in the dim lighting of the room, and Lance couldn’t help but marvel at just how beautiful Keith was before he pressed their lips together, tongue flicking at the seam.

 

Lance opened up immediately, fingers coming up to tangle in Keith’s hair, the smooth locks feeling like heaven between Lance’s hands when he surged up to conquer more of Keith’s mouth, then pulling away, lips wet from saliva and eyes glassy.

 

Keith was struck by the blown away look on Lance’s face, who then smiled smally up at the dark-haired man, whispering, “thank you.”

 

It was a wilting tenderness between them, drawing Keith down to press another peck against the corner of Lance’s lips.  When the two of them parted this time, they were both panting, some delicate bubble between them on the verge of popping.

 

Shaking his head to clear it, Keith’s face started travelling down lower, making Lance almost sob out in disappointment.  Something had almost happened. Though he wasn’t sure what it was, it was something extraordinarily important, and the loss of it shook Lance to his core.

 

However, that was quickly quieted when Keith’s mouth pressed wetly against his hipbone, sucking at the skin there and sending a shot of desire up Lance’s entire body.  He moaned brokenly, and Keith made a shushing sound, nose trailing along his abdomen as his lips went and attacked his other hipbone in a similar way.

 

Lance’s skin there stung, but soon he was preoccupied with the fact that Keith was pulling down his boxers, throwing them off and looking at Lance like he was a prize he won.

 

“Keith, I…”

 

Shushing him again, Keith pressed a finger against Lance’s lips, then grasped his thighs to pull his stance wider, leaving Lance truly exposed.

 

Keith nosed down to the base of Lance’s erection, tongue flicking out tentatively at the shaft, making Lance whimper helplessly, whispering, “Keith, please…”

 

His hot tongue licked out again, making Lance reach blindly for Keith’s hair again.  When Keith licked a long stripe up Lance’s cock, standing at full attention now, he tightened his fist in Keith’s hair, making the other man moan brokenly, coming back for a second to catch his breath before his tongue darted out to lick the slit at the tip of Lance’s cock.  Salty precome coated his throat deliciously, then he wrapped his lips tightly around the tip, sucking him down in three long drops of his mouth. Lance didn’t even know that his dick  _ could _ fit in Keith’s mouth, but Keith was holding onto it like a champ, eyes watering and tongue laving over the underside.

 

People had always told Lance that he was too big in the past.  Not that he was ginormous or anything, but he had enough girth and length to be considered above average.  To Keith, though, he didn’t even flinch.

 

“So good, ahhh…” Lance sighed out happily as Keith drew back and then took Lance down his throat again, this time Lance felt himself hit the back of Keith’s throat and gasped out, eyes closing as fireworks went off behind his eyelids.

 

Keith pulled back off, tongue working to circle the tip aggressively as he dover back down.  Lance had ascended to a new plane of existence. Keith wasn’t lying; he was good at this. Lance had no complaints at all, in fact a burn in his abdomen making him whisper, “Keith I’m… you feel so fucking good with my cock in your mouth…”

 

At that Keith pulled back, keeping his lips tightly around Lance’s cock as he shot off into Keith mouth.  Keith licked it up sloppily, letting it paint his face and drip off of his tongue.

 

“That should be fine,” Keith muttered huskily, and Lance couldn’t even remember what they were talking about because he was completely blown away, brain disconnected from his body.

 

“Lance?  You okay, buddy?”

 

“Hmm?” Lance propped himself up on his elbows, shirt still hiked up his abdomen and hips bruising nicely.

 

Amused, Keith smiled.  “How was that?”

 

_ It was perfect  _ Lance said in his head, but his mouth was currently preoccupied licking his lips, looking at the little bits of come currently painting around Keith’s mouth messily.

 

“You’ve got…” Lance finally stuttered out, and Keith shrugged, standing up.  

 

“It just proves that I did my job.  If anything, the messier the better,” Keith shot a killer smile at Lance, stretching his arms up.  “I guess I can head out now. Thanks for having me, master.”

 

“Master?” Lance squeaked out, eyes widening into saucers.

 

“It’s the term we use when we’re entertaining someone.  For that short while, at least, the person we’re entertaining is our master.”

 

Keith’s eyes sparkled as he said that, winking back at Lance.

 

“I’ll swing by tomorrow night to plan the heist.  It’s your pick what we do, then.”

 

This entire day has been like an acid trip with a hint of ecstasy, and Lance couldn’t even fully grasp the magnitude of the situation.

 

Keith waved, walking out the door with his leather suit still fitting snugly.  Lance’s head fell back against the bed, wondering how the hell he ended up here, in this position.

 

Maybe it was a dream…

 

...or the beginning of a truly awful nightmare.

  
  


***

  
  


Keith wandered into the small entrance to his chambers, looking not unlike a ticketing office outside a movie theater.  His handler appeared at the door, ushering him in quickly.

 

After the short examination she deemed him fit and made him strip down from all of his clothes.  

 

Her hands traveled over his body, taking swabs of his mouth, cheek, the base of his cock, and finally she dipped into his slit.  It was all extremely clinical, and Keith just zoned out, traveling to his happy place. 

 

His leather outfit was replaced with comfortable sleeping pants and a t-shirt.  She typed something into the booth and food popped out of the slit in the wall. She handed it to Keith, her face bemused.  

 

“Did you have fun with the paladin, Lethyr?  Rumors are floating around that he’s quite well endowed.”

 

Shrugging, face impassive, Keith took his dinner from her, settling onto the bench next to the door and starting to devour it.

 

“You’re funny, you know that?” his handler was a tiny Dalmite woman with mischievous neon yellow eyes, her dark hair pulled back into looping braids.  “You’re booked tomorrow morning to perform. You’ll be paired with Paolo.”

 

Keith nodded, drinking his protein shake quickly.  “Who is the buyer?”

 

“Some Dalmite from a neighboring system.  They heard rumors that there was a half Galra here, and wanted to come see for himself.”

 

Wiping his face off, Keith muttered, “So he came for me, specifically?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

Nodding, Keith added him to the list.  He had an internal list of everyone who had forced him into sex, one way or another.  After being extracted, but before the Blades break up the operation, Keith was going to sneak back into the compound.  No one knew about this except for him, of course. He’d slit their throats, and no one would ever need to know.

 

In all honesty, he’d tried his best to have fun these last few weeks.  Usually the sex wasn’t terrible, and he never worried about having anything unfortunate happen to him, like a disease or an unwanted pregnancy.

 

Which, his handler was looking over her tablet thoughtfully.

 

“We’re going to have to talk to the Ambassador about you entertaining that paladin.  It looks like the two of you are genetically compatible. Last thing we need is for him to knock you up,” she tapped her chin thoughtfully, “We should have another escort go there tomorrow night.”

 

She left the room without realizing that she’d made his whole brain short circuit.

 

Of course, he hadn’t thought of it in weeks because he’d been fucking Dalmites, but Lance was human.  Lance could actually get him pregnant, and that was the last thing that he needed.

 

It also meant, though, that Lance and Keith wouldn’t be able to get together tomorrow night covertly to plan their next move.

 

Clutching at his shirt angrily, he quickly exited into his bedroom, a small plush space with a spacious bathroom.  There were no windows or exits except through the double locked doors in his entryway, which closed on him and wouldn’t open until his handler came for him.

 

The Dalmites at least had the decency to allow for a small space to be the escort’s own.  He would never host visitors in here. In fact, his handler isn’t even able to step foot in the room.  Keith knew that it was so that the escorts could feel like they had some semblance of control, but really it was just a fancy looking prison cell.  Guards are never stupid enough to enter where they weren’t wanted.

 

Keith fell back onto his narrow bed, looking up at the dimly lit ceiling thoughtfully.  In truth, since joining the Blade of Marmora, having a consistent place to lay his head again is nice.  He got used to it with Voltron, the castle offering a home when in the past he’d just had places he’d stayed.  A shack in the desert, a short stint in the Garrison. The locations he’d stayed are many, but there’s only one place that he would call home.

 

His mind wandered back to Lance for a second.  Even though it was terrifying knowing that Lance could blow his cover any minute, it was nice to have a friend to talk to.  He’d been keeping quiet for so long about the mission that it had started feeling like his head was overstuffed.

 

Talking to Lance calmed him down like nothing else.  His mind wandered to Shiro, and Hunk and Pidge, even Allura and Coran, and he had a pang in his chest, remembering the people who he had started to consider family.

 

He wondered what they’d think of him now.  They’d probably mostly just worry. Allura might lecture him about setting a good example for the galaxy.  Shiro would have a fit and probably kill everyone here. Pidge would have figured out how to get the damn collar off, and Keith would have been pressed to figure out how to make it look like it hadn’t been hacked.

 

_ The collar, _ he thought idly, Keith’s fingers came up to rest on it.  The collar was the reason that Keith couldn’t leave. If he went farther than a few feet from the casino, the collar would start making Keith deathly ill.  He knew that the Blades had a way to remove his, but until then he was trapped. It was part of his cover.

 

He drifted off like that, fingers pressed up against his collar, remembering the feeling of home and wishing that he was back in the castle, space goo and all.

 

That was his happy place.

  
  


***

  
  


Lance came down to the casino the next morning and got some sort of sandwich for breakfast, looking around the room.  It was clearly a lazy morning, even though it was 10 AM. Lance heard music pounding from somewhere nearby, drawing him to it like a moth to flame.  He had a mouthful of sandwich as he found a group of people seated in a small theatre-like hall, the stage a plush mat of some sort with blinking, bright lights cast onto it.

 

He sat down, curious, when suddenly two people walked out onto the stage.

 

His stomach hit the floor when he realized that it was Keith, with a much stronger, taller man.  The two of them were dressed in delicate red and pink lace, Keith’s hair drawn back into a girlish bow.  Lance realized that in the crowd there was one elevated seat that got the best view, inside of a cage. There was a Dalmite in the cage, his lips quirked in interest.

 

The crowd was whispering and whistling, making Lance continue to eat his sandwich, his nerves setting him on edge.

 

The man in the cage beamed, standing up suddenly.  “Welcome one and all! I’m your host this morning, Claw.  I’ve selected these gorgeous creatures, Lethyr and Paolo, to begin the festivities today.  As a forewarning, though, I have them booked for after the show in my private quarters.”

 

His voice dropped at that, becoming huskily low, and Lance gulped, breaking out in a cold sweat.  People cheered and made wolf whistles at the stage.

 

Claw sat down, waving at the stage.

 

“You may begin.”

 

Lance looked away immediately.  He started searching the crowd, trying to place any of the people he’d met since he got here, but all of them seemed strange.  It was mostly men with a few women sitting pretty on lounge chairs, some with collared companions in their laps and knelt at their feet, but almost all of them at rapt attention.

 

The sound of a cry made Lance’s neck snap back to the stage, but he felt sick.

 

Keith was splayed out underneath Paolo, the taller man biting and playing at Keith’s nipples.  Keith looked sweaty and wrecked already, his cheeks flushed. The lace outfit he was in was ripped all the way down, hanging off him in tatters and leaving nothing to the imagination.

 

Suddenly, Paolo leveraged Keith onto his knees, while leaning back against the taller man.  Keith was on full display like that, facing the crowd, mouth open and panting and cock starting to harden under the attention.  

 

The taller man stroked Keith’s hardening length slowly, drawing gasps and whimpers out of the smaller man.  His other hand came up to play with his nipples more, looking up at Claw for approval.

 

The man in the cage was completely enthralled.  He had a maroon button down partially unbuttoned, and his pants were starting to unbuckle.

 

Oh no.  Oh no no no…

 

Upon inspection, he looking around and saw that quite a few of the spectators were in some stage of undress, stroking themselves or letting their companions suck them down.  No wonder the Ambassador didn’t feel odd about Lance seeing him and Keith yesterday. It appears that nothing is private on this planet.

 

Keith was now fully erect, panting and leaning back against Paolo, chest starting to glisten with sweat.  There was something off about that, but Lance quickly got distracted when Paolo lifted Keith up and drew him into his lap.

 

Paolo kicked Keith’s legs open, then, displaying what was between Keith’s legs for all to see.  At first Lance looked down, but was speechless when he realized…

 

Keith had some sort of slit behind his sac, not a hole like Lance expected.  It was leaking slick fluid, painting his inner thighs shiny. Paolo’s fingers were dipping into the slit and rubbing the slick around, rubbing the edges and using the natural lubricant to continue stroking Keith lazily.

 

Was… was Keith…

 

Paolo murmured something in Keith’s ear, who nodded, scooting back and propping himself up above the other man’s cock, which was revealed to be huge and ready for action.

 

Lance felt himself grow hot.  His thoughts were spinning. Wait, was he going to start fucking Keith without any preparation?  That would hurt him, wouldn’t it? Lance felt his hands ball into fists, wanting nothing more than to take Keith away from this horror show.

 

Instead, Keith sat down onto Paolo’s dick, the other man fucking up into his tight opening, making a squelching sound that echoed erotically around the theatre.  There was something possessive that wanted to force everyone to look away, and to fight Paolo off of Keith, but Lance knew that Paolo was just as much a slave as Keith.  They were both trapped in this game together.

 

When Paolo bottomed out in Keith, the smaller man made the sexiest whimpering noise that Lance had ever heard.  His pants grew tight at the sound, but he stilled his hands, still digging half moons into his palm from clutching his fist.

 

Lance couldn’t look at anything but the expression of pure bliss on Keith’s face as he leaned back against Paolo, nuzzling up into his neck.  The other man pressed a kiss to his forehead, fucking up into him harder.

 

Claw’s voice rang out above the crowd.  

 

“Make him come, then flip him so that he’s bent over with his cunt to me.  Then pound into him as hard as you can.”

 

Paolo bit at Keith’s ear lobe, whispering into his ear quietly.  Keith nodded, meeting Paolo’s upward thrusts, working himself to orgasm.

 

Lance didn’t know how Keith could get into this, how he could get off while people were watching like this.  It had to be embarrassing, or at least upsetting. Yet, Keith was enthusiastically participating, moaning louder and louder before he finally came, shooting his come onto his chest and over Paolo’s lap.  When he came, Keith looked fucking incredible. His face went slack with ecstasy, his body tightening up like a coil. Sweat started beading and running down his chest, and he came off of Paolo’s dick with a sucking sound, turning around and leaning over so that his wrecked slit was on full display, making Claw’s heavy breathing stutter for a moment.

 

“Yeah, just like that you little slut,” Claw’s neon blue eyes were practically pulsing with want, and Lance looked away in disgust, “I want you used and well broken in before I have a go at you.”

 

At that, Keith’s legs spread impossibly wider, a groan carrying above the crowd.

 

“What, you like being called a slut?” Claw cooed as Paolo lined himself up with Keith again, sinking into him with very little effort.

 

“Yes,” Keith’s voice was broken and deep, completely overwhelmed with sensation, “I want to be your little slut.”

 

The words sounded wrong in Keith’s mouth, his words oddly incongruous with the way his forehead dropped to the floor, breathing heavily as Paolo started moving again.

 

Claw’s mouth was running wild, then, calling Keith his little slut, calling Paolo his warm-up dick, talking about how taking his dick after Paolo would feel like the difference between a hot dog and a baseball bat.  When he made that comparison, Paolo hit something in Keith that made him scream in pleasure, whispering, “More, more, please…”

 

Paolo’s breathing became more ragged as he pounded into Keith harder, and within a minute Paolo was pulling out and coming over Keith’s back, the other man collapsing onto the mat beneath him, chest rising and falling with his breath.

 

“Now I get you all to myself,” Claw was grinning giddily, and Lance felt like a vice was fastened to his heart.  He wanted to take Keith away and draw him a hot bath, clean him up, drink hot tea while watching cartoons because they had nothing to do…

 

“Fuck,” Lance closed his eyes as Paolo carried Keith off stage and Claw exited the cage.  He was imagining a lazy Saturday morning, the two of them together and whole and it was  _ just  _ the two of them, tucked safely in their tiny apartment somewhere by the ocean.

 

That wasn’t going to happen today, though.  Keith was going to wherever to get fucked, again, by a terrible, horrible person.

 

Lance found himself walking quickly to the bathroom, throwing up in the first stall he found.

 

None of this was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Calling all artists:
> 
> If you've read any of my other fics before, you know that I do an exchange: if anyone does art for me, I allow them to request a one shot of their choice, following any prompt they create. An example of this is [I Didn't Know Yet, But... (I Always Wanted You)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14871975).
> 
> Coming Up: Keith confides something important in Lance, and everything doesn't go according to plan


	3. Arietta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith recalls his past, and tries to come up with a loophole for him to spend time with Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy
> 
> This chapter is going to get a little nitty-gritty for a bit, so bear with me as I try to flesh it out.
> 
> If this fic makes you feel some type of way, seek out the help of a friend or professional. Look up the following on Google images: dog face swap. Enjoy the combination of hilarity and horror.
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Keith found out that he was a hermaphrodite when he was thirteen.  He remembered panicking because he attended a sexual education class and the teacher was talking about female reproductive organs, which was sounding eerily familiar to Keith.  The words had started to blur together as the realization dawned on him that he might not be what he thought.

 

She explained about how sex was determined by this, but not necessarily gender, and his whole world started collapsing on itself.

 

Keith distinctly remembers feeling sick and asking to be excused.

 

When he went to the nurse and asked about it, she told him that she would have to talk to his parents about seeing a doctor.  Her kind eyes had peered out behind horn-rimmed spectacles in sympathy.

 

The problem was that his parents were long gone.  He lived with a foster family at the time, and they were so overworked just trying to keep the family from falling apart that taking Keith to get a checkup would be… inconvenient.

 

So he did what any thirteen-year-old boy would do and looked it up on the internet.

 

The term was called “hermaphroditism” or when the body has both male and female reproductive organs.  Usually it turned out that the hermaphrodite humans had only partial organs of both genders, and were almost always sterile.

 

However, after doing some research, he started to realize that he might not be.  There were numerous animals that were hermaphroditic, and Keith quickly learned that both of his organs were working… perfectly… as teenage boys do.

 

When he found out about his Galra heritage, and learned basic Galran anatomy and physiology, he realized that all Galrans were born with both sets of sexual organs.  When they told him that, he remembered feeling relieved, and then terrified. Immediately he asked about pregnancy, and the doctor had raised his eyebrow. 

 

“You can get pregnant if you don’t use protection.  You can also get someone pregnant. No, you cannot get yourself pregnant.  Are we done here?”

 

He thought that he’d finally gotten a handle on this whole hermaphrodite thing, and was satisfied that he had most of the relevant questions he’d had throughout his childhood answered.  The reason why he was attracted to both males and females, the reason that he could get off from stimulating his dick or his cunt, the reason why he was definitely not sterile.

 

At this point Keith thought he’d figured it all out.

 

What Keith didn’t know was that when he was around other Galra, there was a certain scent they could give off if they were looking for a mate.

 

The first time it happened one of the members of the Blade was trying to woo another member, and Keith remembers smelling the air and his whole body thrumming like a finely tuned instrument.  The smell was soft and spicy, like vanilla and clove, and made Keith’s knees turn to jelly.

 

“What is that?” Keith’s mouth was watering, feeling his pants get tighter as he sniffed the air hungrily. 

 

Kolivan quickly brought him out of the dining hall, looking at him clinically.

 

“This is your first time being around other Galrans, correct?”

 

“I’ve fought them before,” Keith said distractedly, trying to get past Kolivan to get back into the dining hall.  He had to find who was giving off that scent. He had to… had to let them… wanted to be… what?

 

“So you’ve never had any sort of long term friendship or anything with another Galra?”

 

Annoyed, Keith finally gave up on trying to get past Kolivan, crossing his arms dejectedly.  

 

“Usually teenage Galrans are around enough of their own kind that they start to develop an immunity to mating scents unless they are being directed at you.  Seeing as you grew up with humans only, you don’t have any sort of tolerance for it.”

 

Keith’s mind was getting fuzzy.  He needed to get back in the room, and find the person…

 

Kolivan made up his mind about something.  “Okay, come on.”

 

Without warning Keith was being dragged towards the medical bay, and was quickly plopped down on a bed in a locked room with Kolivan and two nurses.

 

“Keith, they’re going to help you get through this.  It’s just your body’s reaction to the mating scent. Then we’re going to try to fabricate the process we go through as teenagers.  It’s going to be hell for a little while, but I think it’s necessary if you’re going to stay here.”

 

Whimpering, Keith felt his skin start to get hot.  The nurses placed ice chips next to his bed, and quickly left him alone.

 

The burning felt so good.  He wanted to get claimed so badly, wanted someone to give it to him slow and draw out every moan from his mouth.  His hand wrapped around his cock, and he shoved his clothes off before stroking himself and letting out a moan of satisfaction at the feeling.

 

Then… his fingers dipped lower, and a clear white fluid was dripping out of his slit.  His fingers gathered it up to use to stroke himself faster, hips coming off the bed as he fucked up into his own hand.

 

That was the first time that he was exposed to Galra mating scents.

 

Kolivan’s plan worked, anyway.  They synthesized a few mating scents and exposed Keith to them over the course of a few weeks, and slowly his body stopped reacting so immediately to the smells.  Soon they started blending in with the background. So, unless a mating scent was directed at him, they stopped affecting him so readily.

 

When Keith got to Phoem, one of the first things they did was synthesize a serum to activate that bodily response from him.  They’d kept other half-Galrans before, Keith guessed. He suspected that they might do something like that, and honestly if it helped Keith get through such a traumatic experience he didn’t necessarily mind.  

 

So now whenever he’s going out for a show, or meeting with a very important client, they shot him up with serum that turns him into a mushy, sex-starved animal.

 

When he was like this, nothing could distract him from wanting to have sex.  It was like they took the Galran mating scent and concentrated it, injecting it directly into Keith’s system.

 

Well… actually that was exactly what they did.

 

When Keith was being carried by Paolo off the stage and back to the private room booked for Claw, Keith starting pawing at Paolo’s chest, erection stirring.

 

Paolo shushed him gently as Keith whimpered.

 

“It’s going to be alright, Keith,” Paolo made it to the room, opening the door and quickly closing it behind them.  “Just hang on, okay?”

 

Keith sobbed out a moan as he was laid down onto the king size bed, sweat dripping off of his superheated skin.

 

Concerned, Paolo came up behind him and propped him up in his lap again, hand going to gently stroke at Keith from behind.

 

The sensation temporarily calmed the heated daze, making Keith pant with want.

 

Keith didn’t even notice the door opening, but certainly heard his master’s voice very clearly as he stepped towards the bed.

 

Claw’s neon blue eyes were taking in Keith’s figure, his pants unbuttoned and his cock already out and at half mast.  Keith whimpered, knowing that he needed to get stuffed full with that cock, and that it would bring him the relief he needed.

 

“When I found out they’d brought a half-Galra on again, I almost melted right there.  They hadn’t gotten another one since that last bitch, and there’s something so singularly perfect about your anatomy…” Claw’s fingers came to Keith’s member and stroked as well, making Keith keen and push up into his hand.

 

Paolo backed up slowly as Claw came up onto the bed, his cock quickly sliding into Keith’s waiting body.

 

It  _ was  _ like Paolo was only the warm-up cock.  Keith gasped out in ecstasy as Claw stretched him out, his slick making the slide deliciously wet.  Keith’s hands came up to pull Claw down by the back, wanting him to get deeper and deeper into him, loving the way he felt stretched out and tight around the cock inside of him…

 

...at some point, after Claw had come inside of Keith more times than he could count, Keith was sleeping next to Paolo.  Claw’s time had run out and he was removed from the room, but Keith didn’t want to be alone, so Paolo had stayed with him.

 

Paolo was some sort of humanoid race.  He looked eerily similar to a human, just leaner and darker.  He had four fingers and was stroking Keith’s arm gently.

 

“He really did a number on you, huh?”

 

Keith awoke at that moment, but not because Paolo talked.  No, it just happened that that was the moment that the injection started losing its potency, and Keith felt the satisfaction from being stuffed full with come change to disgust and nausea.

 

Paolo held Keith’s hair as he puked, and helped him towards his rooms.  After checking him out his handler gave him lunch and an extra comfortable set of clothes, telling him that she’d bring in the heating pad later.

 

Keith stood in the shower and stared off into the distance as he cleaned himself out, wincing at the places where Claw had been a little rough.

 

Marks on escorts cost extra, and Keith knew that Claw had racked up a hefty bill.

 

After his shower, Keith gingerly climbed into bed and fell into a nap, body completely worn down.

  
  


***

  
  


At around dinnertime, his handler woke him up through the intercom.

 

“It’s social hour.  I don’t have you booked for anyone but you still need to be present and entertaining.

 

Keith groaned, sitting up and feeling his lower back cringe in pain.  

 

He got ready quickly, putting on his loose pants with a slit in the bottom, and his golden bowtie.  This was all he was allowed.

 

Stepping out onto the entertainment floor, it was clear that people were still trickling in.  Most of the escorts were just standing around chatting, and Keith found himself walking up to one of the ones he knew.

 

Her name was Arietta, and she was a very tall alien, with red spikes that poked out of the top of her head like a crown.  Her skin was scaly around the head and her hands, but the rest of her transitioned to tough skin.

 

At first Keith couldn’t find the appeal of having an escort like her, but apparently she fulfilled a specific niche group.

 

Her yellow eyes narrowed as he came over.

 

“I saw you up there with Paolo.  Did they dose you again?”

 

Keith stiffened, clearing his throat and pretending to be chatting idly.  “They did.”

 

“Fucking perverts,” she hissed, touching his elbow lightly and laughing fakely.

 

“I have a question for you, but it needs to be dealt with discretely.”

 

Nodding, she pulled him closer, and they started dancing together, her towering over him and stroking his bare chest.

 

The only way to get away with having conversations without their handlers knowing was if they managed to work it into a performance.  If Keith danced with Arietta, it would appear that they were just whispering dirty things to each other instead of discussing things they shouldn’t be discussing.

 

Her lips pressed against his ear.  “I’m all ears.”

 

Turning his head, he whispered, “Claw said something about there being another half-Galra that used to be here.  What… what happened to them?”

 

Arietta stiffened, her hold on Keith’s hips growing tighter.  

 

“Ari…”

 

“I know, I just… I was very careful to make sure none of the other escorts told you.”

 

Keith’s stomach dropped and heartbeat sped up in his chest, making him feel ill.  “What… tell me what?”

 

Spinning Keith around, she brought him to lean against her so that they were dancing chest to chest.  Keith was pressed right against her shoulder and swaying his hips with hers to the light music drifting over them.

 

“The last half-Galra’s name was Borak.  He… they found a Galra buyer who wanted to breed him.  The buyer left with him, and since then he’s been under his… service.”

 

Keith felt like someone had poured a bucket of water over him.  No, that couldn’t be right… could it?

 

“Have they done that before?” Keith’s voice was panicked, and she stroked his hair in a comforting motion.  

 

“Rarely, and it’s mostly done under the table.  I’m sure you’ll be fine, doll. You’re not at prime childbearing years for a hybrid anyway.”

 

That fact only brought him a small bit of relief, before he suddenly frowned, an idea hatching.

 

“What if… what if I knew an interested buyer who I… enjoy the company of?”

 

Sucking in her breath, Arietta whispered, “What are you up to, Lethyr?”

 

“I just… what’s the process like?”

 

Her voice lowered more, if possible.  “Usually there’s a supervised courting period.  Then the handler has to get the union approved from upstairs.  It’s very expensive to take one of us. We’re an investment, and if someone takes us they’re taking all of the money we could earn.  Is your potential mate loaded?”

 

Keith felt the lie come easily.  “Yeah, he’s got more money than he knows what to do with.”

 

Arietta smiled sadly, coming back to look at Keith.  “That sounds nice. I… I would hate to see you go, though, doll.”

 

“Nothing is set in stone,” Keith responded easily, backing out of her grasp.

 

The two of them parted ways, but Keith was suddenly hatching a plan.

 

He made a few laps around the room, sitting in laps and letting Dalmites fondle him and direct him how they liked.  After a few pokes and prods he was about ready to shank someone, but knew that he needed to keep his cool.

 

When he saw a familiar face come in, dressed in jeans and a tank top, he felt himself start to calm down immediately.

 

He sauntered over to someone near Lance, laughing at what they were saying as he felt Lance come up behind him.

 

“Um, Lethyr, could I borrow you for a moment?”

 

Keith turned around and saw that Lance’s blue eyes were swimming with nerves and… something that Keith couldn’t quite place.  What emotion was welling beneath the surface of Lance’s mind? Keith let himself be led away, trying to puzzle out what was going through Lance’s head.

 

“I tried... ordering you,” Lance stood awkwardly in front of one of the comfortable couches, and Keith rolled his eyes, pressing Lance down onto the mushy surface and straddling him, not touching but still crowded up in his space.

 

“We have a little problem,” Keith whispered in his ear, fingers ghosting over Lance’s bare arms but still not touching.

 

Lance gulped.  “I… they just told me you weren’t available anymore.  I wanted to make sure… you were okay.”

 

Of course he would check.  A small smile fought its way to Keith’s face as he said, “There was a compatibility problem.”

 

The boy beneath him blushed a little bit, hands finally settling onto Keith’s hips gently.  “I… wanted to ask you about earlier.”

 

Keith’s blood ran cold, but his hands finally started stroking Lance’s mocha skin.  “What?”

 

“I… well, I saw the show earlier and I… had questions.”

 

Closing his eyes, Keith counted backwards from five, then asked, “what questions?”

 

“You… so from where I was sitting you were… being presented, basically, to the audience?  You looked sweaty and feverish and you had a… well I don’t want to say vagina because that…”

 

“It is,” Keith muttered darkly, fingers coming up to run through Lance’s hair as he made serious eye contact.  “That’s what it is.”

 

Stunned, Lance blubbered, “...but you’re a…”

 

“Dude,” Keith finished for him, watching as Lance’s brain tried to make all the pieces fit.  “Galra are hermaphroditic.”

 

Lance’s eyes widened, and then the realization overtook him and he leaned his forehead against Keith’s shoulder, relieved.  “I thought I was going crazy,” his breath escaping him in a rush, “I kept saying to myself that it wasn’t possible but… your Galra side.  That’s where it’s coming from.”

 

Hot breath tickled Keith’s neck gently, and he found himself tensing up at the warm sensation, making his body positively melt.

 

“You don’t think it’s weird?” Keith asked honestly, not worrying too much about the answer but wanting to know all the same.

 

Chuckling, Lance’s hands started wandering over the exposed skin along Keith’s side.  “It’s just you, Keith. It’s all a part of you, and you are one of the coolest people I ever met.  So, it’s cool, too.”

 

Emotion rose like champagne bubbles in his chest, and he leaned back, bringing Lance’s face up towards his.  Their mouths hovered in front of each other’s for a moment, Lance’s breath catching as his eyes flicked down to gaze at Keith’s mouth, transfixed.

 

“I’m… okay there’s something I need to ask…” Lance’s voice wavered and suddenly he looked incredibly vulnerable, “You’re… I’m getting a lot of vibes here and… I’m not sure if it’s from you or if it’s just you playing your role and…”

 

Sighing, Keith pressed forward so that his lips were hovering next to Lance’s ear.  “Does it matter?”

 

Lance visibly swallowed, eyes shining as his hands stalled on Keith’s skin.

 

“You’re… it matters.  It… I really care about you Keith.  I need to know if this is real or just an act to you.”

 

Keith had never seen Lance’s face look like that, so vulnerable and desperate.  A bright blush was starting to color Lance’s cheeks under his bright blue eyes, and Keith felt himself soften at the words.

 

“I don’t know,” Keith said honestly, leaning back a little bit and stroking his hand along Lance’s jawline.  “I think I’m figuring it out.”

 

Gulping, Lance murmured, “Want to figure it out in private?”

 

Keith shook his head, looking around him to make sure no one could overhear.  “My handler ran tests last night and found out that we’re genetically compatible.  I can’t entertain you anymore, unless…”

 

The plan was so stupid, and Keith struggled to weigh the risks and the rewards, but he knew that he needed alone time with Lance in order to get the book that he needed, and he knew now that there was only one way to do that.

 

Lance’s eyes widened, searching Keith’s.  “What does that mean, genetically compatible?”

 

Swallowing, Keith muttered, “Look at every species that’s enslaved.  Now, look at the species that are in control. Do any of them look alike to you?”

 

Casting his glance around the room, Lance bit his lip.  “You’re a hybrid, though.”

 

“I can get knocked up, but only by certain species, including humans.  They don’t want to risk a costly abortion or pregnancy where they’ll lose money when I’m not working.  The Grand Ambassador has forbid genetically compatible fraternization.”

 

Grimacing at the thought of getting knocked up, Keith’s grip on Lance tightened.  “I won’t be able to be alone with you anymore. So we’re going to have to come up with another plan.”

 

“You said ‘unless’ before,” Lance pointed out, and Keith cursed internally. 

 

“I’m still figuring that option out.  If it becomes possible, I’ll let you know,” Keith glanced around himself quickly to see if anyone had taken notice to him being with Lance.  The social hour was starting to draw to a close.

 

“Do we have a plan for the heist?” Lance asked quietly, and Keith shook his head.

 

“I have my plan from before, but that was before you simplified it with having a gold card.  I need time to think. I’m not scheduled for anything until tomorrow night, so I’ll be around at social hour at eleven.  I’ll try to come up with something by then.”

 

Lance’s brow furrowed.  “I… wanted to ask about that.  Are you okay from today?”

 

Avoiding Lance’s eyes, Keith muttered, “I’m fine.  I know what I’m doing.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Lance tilted Keith’s chin to look up at him, even though Keith still refused to meet his eye, “You’re still allowed to have feelings, even if you are an incredible undercover agent.”

 

Keith swallowed, backing off of Lance immediately and bowing, muttering, “thank you, master” before bolting away, anger bubbling in his veins.

 

It wasn’t as easy as just feeling your feelings and magically everything got better!  Keith couldn’t feel his feelings about this place yet. If he did, he’d fall apart, and he needed to hold it together.  There were hundreds of aliens being extorted daily by this race, and he needed to keep his cool for everyone who had been forced into this life.

 

It wasn’t as easy as Lance made it seem.

 

The social hour was drawing to a close as Keith stormed towards his private quarters, grumbling angrily about how stupid Lance was.

 

As he passed his handler, she clucked her tongue.  “I saw you with that human. You know what I said about him.”

 

“Whatever,” Keith muttered, slamming his door and ripping off his outfit, collapsing into bed in just his boxers and wrapping himself up in blankets.

 

Sometimes you needed to feel your feelings, and sometimes you needed to hold them in.  Emotional maturity was being able to recognize the difference.

 

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like this, check out my other fics!
> 
> I have a few Voltron fics, including another Klance series called [Our Hearts Beat As One](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1047074). If you're into Shidge, I'm finishing off [I Always Wanted You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484139/chapters/30918801) in the next few days.


	4. Ganus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith re-centers himself with some time to unwind. Later, he finds out some interesting information from another escort, and has a bad run-in with a client.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello hello!
> 
> Warning: this fic deals largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. Forced sex is rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic does not excuse any of the actions taken by characters, and in fact will work to try to eradicate the operation altogether. Due to the nature of this topic, be prepared to deal with potential consent issues.
> 
> So far this fic has been getting good feedback? I love feedback like Hunk likes food. Leave a comment or a kudos and make my whole day:{)
> 
> Also, I would like to know if anyone has any special requests. Feel free to comment, or message me on my tumblr (painted-lady12) or twitter (painted_lady12) pages. I'm still fairly early in the planning stage of this fic, and have wiggle room in the story if you wanna see any specific scenes of smut or angst or fluff. Also, if anyone is feeling like the side character list is getting too extensive, I'll do my best to help you guys discern between them
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Sometimes Keith lost sight of what he was working on in Phoem.

 

Sometimes his will would start to crumble, and he’d start to wonder if all that he’d given was worth it.  He’d allowed so many horrors to happen to him, and he’d done his best to avoid worrying too much about them, but sometimes… sometimes it was hard.

 

Lance had shaken him, yet again.  He’d taken Keith’s resolve and bent it up, and Keith knew just what he needed to do to get back on track.

 

As he walked into the room he had been aiming for, he started to feel his motivation seep back into him, determination set on him yet again.

 

They call the room “the nursery”, but it was actually just a bunker of future escorts.  Galra would bring back slaves of all ages and species, but some of them weren’t sexually mature.  Instead, they would be housed in the bunker, to be groomed to become the next generation of escorts.

 

As he walked in, one of the kids ran up to him, collar looking far too bulky on his little neck.

 

“Lele!” he jumped up and tackled Keith’s waist, hugging him tightly.  “You came back!”

 

This kid was around  the equivalent of eleven years old for his species.  He had well-groomed pink hair, body seamless and rounded out like a calming cartoon character.  When Keith met him a few weeks ago, the kid had tried to pronounce “Lethyr” and had failed, unsurprisingly.  Keith gave him permission to use the nickname “Lele”, pronounced lay-lay.

 

“Hey, Ganus,” Keith patted him on the head, looking around the bunker at the other kids, who were all smiling and waving over at Keith.

 

“Mr. Lele,” one of the younger kids pulled on the bottom of his loose pants, looking up at him with wide eyes, “Are you here to take us home?”

 

Stunned, Keith stepped back from Ganus and the other, smaller kid, who had a collection of green spots running from his forehead down his neck.

 

“I’m not, I’m just here to visit,” Keith said as his heartbeat started to slow down, “What gave you that idea?”

 

He tried to keep his voice even, but it was a little bit high-pitched at the end.

 

“You remind me of a warrior!  I’m always telling the other kids that Mr. Lele is going to save us,” Ganus suddenly patted the oddly astute kid on the head with pity.

 

“Sorry, Lele, Snicker’s has a big imagination,” Ganus’ face revealed that no one was taking these claims seriously, and Keith was able to breathe easier.  “Did you come to play with us?”   
  


“You know that I did,” Keith smiled around the room, and soon a small group of the kids were gathered around them. 

 

Keith was never much a people person.  On earth, he barely interacted with people at all.  In space, he was more of an action guy, not a social guy.  However, once an orphan, always an orphan. Being in and out of group homes and programs and foster care made him realize just how traumatizing it is to be exposed to so much at such a young age.  When younger kids showed up wherever he was, he’d guard them fiercely, hoping that he could protect the younger kid from the horrors he himself faced.

 

Though Keith wasn’t a “people” person, he was a “kid” person.  To Keith, kids weren’t real people. They were People Lite, like normal people but much kinder and less judgmental.

 

Keith could deal with People Lite.

 

He set them up to play duck-duck-goose, and most of them were squealing and giggling and paying very close attention as Keith explained the rules.

 

Ganus and Snicker (Keith wanted to snicker himself at that name, and decided that he’d make it his life’s mission to get Snicker a Snicker’s bar) were helping Keith explain the rules, but where Ganus had a familiar game on his planet, Snicker was just repeating the words Keith was saying in a jumble.

 

“You have to chase the person around and then take their spot.  If they get there first, you now have to be the tagger.”

 

“Chase the person’s spot around if you get there first!” Snicker yelled with determination, and Keith just patted his head, ruffling his hair affectionately.

 

By the end of the game, most of the kids were sectioned off into little groups playing cards or gossiping.  The kids were locked in the bunker for most of the day. During certain scheduled hours they were allowed out onto the floor to help serve drinks and keep an eye on the casino games.  Keith knew that it was also so that they could get an idea of what the escorts do, because someday they’d be forced to do the same.

 

Snicker was rocking back and forth next to Keith, and had a girl from his same species next to him.  She had green spots as well, but her long green hair was plaited back, and she introduced herself as Luffy.  The two of them were talking about their favorite characters from a radio show they listen to back home, and Ganus was dealing cards to Keith, so he could teach Keith a game that was from his home planet.

 

“Hey Lele?”

 

Keith looked at him with a smile.  “What’s up, kid?”

 

Thoughtful for a moment, he brushed his pink hair back, white eyes avoiding Keith’s as he asked, “How long do you think we’re going to be here?”

 

Ganus and Keith had shown up on the same shipment of people, which was why Ganus and him were so close.  Keith wanted to tell him not to worry, that if Keith had anything to say about it none of the kids in the bunker were going to be here for much longer at all.

 

What he said instead was, “I don’t know kid.  How many cards do I draw, again?” he asked deliberately, and the kid’s face told Keith that he knew that Keith was deflecting, and that just made him grimace, mumbling a number under his breath.

 

They played for a while.  Keith knew he wasn’t scheduled for anything until the nighttime social hour at eleven, so as the time started to draw nearer he stood up from where he was coloring with the kids.

 

“I’m sorry guys, but I gotta head out…”

 

Luffy and Snicker both jumped over and clinged onto his legs tightly, shaking their heads in earnest.  “No, Mr. Lele can’t leave!”

 

Sighing, Keith gently tried to extricate himself from the two of them.  Ganus helped him out, and soon he was waving good-bye to the kids, some of which looked absolutely miserable that he was leaving.

 

When he got back to his rooms and his handler handed him his outfit for the day, he caught sight of himself in the mirror, body marked up from Claw still, and watched as his motivation started to ease away all the self-doubt about this job.

 

He knew exactly what he was doing.  Just one more week and he’d be free, and he could save everyone here.

 

Just one more week.

  
  


***

  
  


His evening wear was his usual leather get-up, which stung as he fastened it over his many bites and bruises from earlier that day.

 

As he walked out to the entertainment floor, he noticed that Arietta was watching him closely.  Avoiding her eyes, he walked out through the crowd, hyper-aware of his own movements.

 

Two of the other escorts were on him in an instant then.  Katya, a short Olkari woman, and Ellion, a graceful wisp of a woman, were both standing in Keith’s way.

 

“Lethyr,” Ellion said with a smile, “You naughty boy, why didn’t you tell us?”

 

Keith’s face turned red suddenly, because the knowing looks in their eyes did not bode well at all.  “Tell you what?”

 

Katya giggled, her wide eyes fixing Keith with another penetrating, knowing stare.  Keith wasn’t sure what they were referring to, but whatever it was made his skin crawl.  “Oh, that you had a suitor, of course.”

 

His breath caught as he looked at the two escorts, also done up in tight leather.  “Who else knows?”

 

“No one,” Ellion reassured, placing her glowing hand on his arm, “We’ve just been watching and we can tell what’s happening.  “Are you excited? Terrified? I’ve heard that being bonded to a mate feels incredibly blissful for hybrids. It’s like they finally belong somewhere.”

 

The two of them weren’t intending to be mean or to condescend, but they were doing a spectacular job of it anyway.  “I have no idea what’s going to happen with that,” Keith supplied through gritted teeth. The last thing he needed was for his compatriots to go sniffing around Lance and start to put things together.

 

Wait though… “...did you say bonded?”

 

Ellion’s silverish face colored a bright blue, and she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully.  “They explained mating bonds to you, right?”

 

His stomach dropped out, and Keith felt himself simultaneously wanting to run away but also was nauseatingly curious.  “Let’s pretend I don’t know anything,” Keith bit out, clenching and unclenching his fists in order to keep himself under control.

 

Ellion looked over at Katya.  “You’d know best, right darling?”

 

“Ah, yes.  My sister mated with a Galra.  She said that when the Galra sunk their teeth into her neck, it was like every bad thing faded out.  She said it was like you were high on endorphins all the time, and also said it made the sex a thousand times more intense,” Katya’s voice was bright and cheery, but Keith could hear the actual fear underneath her words.  They had to maintain a certain tone, but Keith could see a glint in Katya’s eye.

 

She was trying to communicate something important.

 

“We were all… taken into Galra culture in different ways.  I was too delicate to work in the Galran brothels, so I was brought here.  My sister was mated with a Galra general, and she said that she rarely ever even closes her legs let alone puts clothes on.”

 

Keith’s hands were shaking.  “Is that… only if the mate is a full Galra?”

 

“No,” Katya piped up with a false smile, “As long as one of the partners has Galra heritage, a bite to the neck will seal the deal, one way or another.  Galra have chemicals that react strongly when they choose a mate, and it leads to them almost always sealing the mating bond on instinct.”

 

Shaking hands aside, Keith muttered, “Thank you.  That was informative.”

 

Ellion giggled and looped her arm around Keith’s hips, whispering, “He’s been watching you this whole time, by the way.”

 

Looking up, Keith could see quite a few people eyeing their little trio with curiosity and hunger, but he could also see Lance sitting at a booth by himself, clutching his drink nervously and wincing as the arm around Keith tightened more.  His blue eyes darted away at Keith’s glance, but Keith wasn’t sure why.

 

“You need to watch yourself,” Ellion’s voice was barely perceptible, “Mating bonds are for life.”

 

It was a commitment, then.  Ellion didn’t want Keith making any rash choices just to get out from here, and if Lance was actually a danger Ellion and Katya coming over and tactfully warning him about this would have been lifesaving.

 

Luckily, Lance was Lance.  They weren’t actually going to go through with the pairing; Keith just wanted the time to spend with Lance for their “courting” to plan their heist.

 

He’d spent most of his evening planning and making arrangements, and now he said good-bye to the other two, who were smiling easily like they hadn’t just discussed Keith being turned into someone else’s incubator.

 

As he walked towards Lance, Keith grabbed a drink from the cart going around.  He walked up with it and setting it in front of the red paladin.

 

“Lance,” Keith said lowly, and Lance stiffened, looking up with a stunned expression.

 

“This one tastes better,” Keith said easily, and Lance gratefully put his own down and picked up the one Keith had brought over.  After a sip, Lance’s face visibly relaxed, and he leaned back in the booth.

 

Taking the opportunity, Keith sat down next to Lance and swung his legs over Lance’s lap, arm wrapping around Lance’s far shoulder.  The position was intimate in a way that they had never been, and he could feel Lance struggle to find where to safely place his hands.  

 

“You can touch me,” Keith urged, and Lance breathed out heavily, one arm going around Keith’s back and the other resting gently on Keith’s closest knee.  

 

“How’s the plan coming along?” Lance’s lips were dangerously close to Keith’s ear, their cheeks brushing along each other with each shaky movement.

 

Darting his eyes around the room, he saw that Katya and Ellion were both separated and being pulled into laps now, and Arietta already had a chain around her neck by one of the Galran generals being entertained.  Keith was always careful to avoid the Galran generals because he knew that he wasn’t allowed to be near them, and now that he had the image of that poor woman being mated… just looking at a Galra was making his stomach clench with fear.

 

Deciding it was safe, Keith leaned his forehead until it was on Lance’s, breath puffing warmly between them.  “I have a plan, but for it to work I need you to be able to lie a  _ lot. _ ”

 

Lance snorted.  “You don’t believe I can do it?”

 

Purple eyes narrowed at Lance, and Keith grumbled, “Remember when you got caught skipping class at the Garrison and said that you couldn’t go to class because your aunt had a bad case of Cheetos?”

 

Scoffing, Lance was going red, dark skin coloring in a way that Keith couldn’t help but want to kiss from this angle.  “How do you know about that?”

 

“I know all,” Keith said airily, before continuing, “There’s apparently an option for us to spend time together, but you’re going to have to pretend that… well…” Keith bit his lip, suddenly embarrassed despite all of the other things he’d done to complete this mission, “You’re going to have to pretend that you want to buy me.”

 

The paladin’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, breathing shallow.  “Say… that again?”

 

“They’ve sold off other half Galra before for… breeding purposes.  You would have to offer a lot of money, but you wouldn’t ever even need it.  I just need the time for you to court me, because before you ever have to buy me I’ll be evacuated.”

 

Lance’s face was closed off for a moment, looking up at Keith with eyes that were begging him for… something.  

 

“You’d have to get in contact with my handler, who will bring the proposition to the Grand Ambassador.  He has to approve a courting period, and then we’ll have supervised visits for a few days to decide whether or not you actually want to keep me.”

 

Snorting, Lance raised an eyebrow at Keith’s confused face, but then just stuttered, “Nothing, nothing, just… who wouldn’t want to keep you?”

 

It was probably intended originally to be a dig, but somehow at the end Lance’s face looked nothing but earnest and a little scared, and Keith had to fight to swallow the lump in his own throat as their eyes made terrified contact.

 

“If the visits are supervised, how are we supposed to plan a heist?”

 

“They’re supervised by video, not by sound.  We’ll be allowed into a private room that has a camera, but not a mic.”

 

Suddenly Lance’s hand came up to Keith’s face, and paused as it hovered in the air in front of his skin, then lightly brushed a lock of hair away.

 

It hadn’t even occurred to Keith until then how comfortable he was.  His body fit just right against Lance’s, and their faces were inches apart but Keith felt no urge to look away.  The startled expression seemed to be amusing, because Lance just smiled, happiness pouring easily over his own expression.

 

“What?” Keith bit his lip, and Lance just shook his head, lightly moving Keith’s along with it where they were connected.  

 

This was one of those moments that had broken earlier, Keith thought.  He knew Lance felt it too, earlier this evening only confirming something that Keith had suspected.  Something was burning between them, and Keith felt his whole body warm to contentment at the contact they had.

 

For the first time in weeks, he felt something akin to… safe.

 

“Lance,” Keith’s voice was husky and Lance suddenly sniffed the air thoughtfully.

 

“It smells like cinnamon sugar,” he cocked his head to the side thoughtfully.  “I didn’t realize that they did snacks at these things?”

 

Blinking, Keith said, “They don’t.  It must be one of the escort’s perfume.”

 

Nodding, Lance felt the spell break between them and Keith leaned back a bit, dazed at how quickly their contact had gone from so close to so far away.

 

Biting his lip, Keith whimpered, and Lance’s eyes widened.  

 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lance touched his cheek thoughtfully, “I’m going to go talk to your handler.  Do you see her around?”

 

Keith’s eyes darted around the room, at the purple light beaming up from designs in the floor, and the leather and metallic outfits of the escorts combined with the loose black robes of employees and guests.

 

He spotted her just then, her awkward figure discussing something nervously with another handler Keith recognized.

 

“I’m going to go get her, alright?  She can talk to the Grand Ambassador for us.”

 

Nodding, Keith could feel Lance gently disentangle himself and start to walk away.

 

The distance made Keith shiver, whimpering again.  What the heck was going on? His whole body was feeling like it was rejected.  Lance had gone away so they could spend more time together, but that’s not what every cell in his body were saying.  They were saying that Lance had abandoned him.

 

He sat on the couch for a while, head propped up on the side of the booth, before he felt a hand on his back suddenly.

 

They were enclosed in a booth alone, and Keith turned around, trying to find it in himself to play his part but instead just shakily touching their arm and climbing into their lap.

 

In his daze, he hadn’t realized that the person whose lap he’d just crawled into was Galra.  They were attractive for a Galra, with wide shoulders and huge arms exposed through his black tunic.  

 

“Hey there, beautiful,” the Galra practically purred, and Keith felt it then start to envelop him: something close to an apple orchard in it’s earthy yet slightly sweet tinge.  Keith’s whole body started sighing as the scent overwhelmed him. If Lance leaving had set every cell inside him on edge, the scent he was currently breathing made him whimper in relief.

 

He knew that something was off about the exchange, but his body was vulnerable and reacting without his permission.  He could feel himself start to get turned on, and his head fell onto the Galra’s shoulder. It felt right to be in this man’s arms.  It felt like he was coming home. Without thinking about it too much he wrapped his arms around the Galra’s neck, who was pressing soft kisses into his hair.

 

“That’s good, come on.  Let me claim you,” the voice was reassuring.  The voice made Keith feel wetness start to gather in his underwear, and Keith whimpered again.

 

A warm nose started sniffing along Keith’s neck, and with a relieved sigh he bared himself in submission.  He was going to be claimed. He was going to be mated! He’d tried to get Lance to do this with him, but obviously Lance wasn’t good enough.  This Galra was good; his scent was drowning Keith in comfort, and Keith started rubbing his growing erection against the Galra’s stomach.

 

“Your mating scent is delightful,” the Galra crooned, “I could tell it was you from across the room.  I knew then that I had to have you.”

 

Nodding frantically, Keith whimpered, “Please.”

 

“I can’t bite you, darling.  The fine for that is way more than I can afford,” the voice was soothing even though the words made tears spring to Keith’s eyes.  He wasn’t going to bite him? He wasn’t going to mate him? Why send out his mating scent, then!? A low growl started in his chest, and the Galra’s hands starting running up and down Keith’s back soothingly.  

 

The Galra’s nose nuzzled Keith just underneath his ear, and he breathed in Keith’s scent from the most potent place it could be, making Keith gasp and grind down harder on the Galra’s lap.

 

Keith’s arms came out from around the Galra’s neck, whispering, “I… what’s my master’s name?”

 

Somehow he’d managed to still use the proper term, even though he wanted to say something else, something more intimate.

 

“General Jovak,” he said easily as Keith’s hands started sliding not-so-subtly down to paw through his black robes at his growing cock.

 

Something about this felt wrong, but every instinct he had was telling him that he was doing so well.  

 

“Impatient, are we?” Jovak chuckled, breathing in Keith’s space.  The smell of the apple orchard was so real, so palpable around him.  Keith didn’t know if he was even breathing oxygen anymore. He just knew that he felt like his skin was buzzing and his whole body wanted… no,  _ needed _ … this.

 

“You’re so perfect.  Your lips,” Jovak leaned forward and pressed his chapped lips against Keith’s, then lightly nipped at his lower lip, drawing blood.  “If I could have you alone, I would.”

 

Why did that sound like a rejection?  Keith felt the chill, not unlike when Lance got up.  Was Jovak not intending to mate him?

 

“No,” Keith felt his throat close up.  “Please, I need you,  _ please.” _

 

At just that moment Keith felt someone walk up to their table.  Fearful for his safety, he crawled out of Jovak’s lap and hovered behind him, bearing his teeth.  Jovak himself was blocking the person in question, growling low in his throat like an animal.

 

It was one of the employees of the casino, who looked more bored than anything.  “I’m sorry, sirs, but same species collusion is strictly forbidden here.”

 

Panic settled low in Keith’s stomach.  Oh, they were going to take him away. They were going to take him away before… before Jovak could…

 

Someone else came up behind Keith and touched his arm.  Snarling, he turned around with his teeth bared to see Lance, blue eyes blown open wide and lips parted in shock.

 

The look in Lance’s eyes wasn’t terrified, it was something different, something worse.  Keith felt his guard go up. Lance had abandoned him not minutes before. Lance didn’t want him.  He tried to get Lance to smell his mating scent and Lance hadn’t reacted at all.

 

“Lethyr, come on,” another voice from behind Lance said.  It was Ellion, who came forward and kneeled before Keith, who was still crowding around Jovak’s back, “You know that you aren’t allowed to mate.”

 

A tortured sob suddenly ripped out of Keith as he felt his whole world start to shrink.

 

“I know, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” she gathered Keith up in her arms, keeping hard eyes narrowed at Jovak, who was quickly being surrounded by a few casino employees who looked displeased.

 

Suddenly the scent was gone.  The warmth and happiness and pure, unadulterated calm that had spread through him slowly was draining quickly.  His whole body ached, all the way down to his bones, and the air felt so cold around him.

 

“... going into shock right now.  His body can’t handle the unfinished pairing.  He was too loaded up with pheromones,” he heard his handler’s voice not too far away.

 

“What do we do?” Ellion sounded worried and suddenly Keith was being brought into a private entertainment room, and the door was closed behind their small group of people.  Keith didn’t open his eyes as he was lowered onto the bed and quickly joined by two warm bodies on either side of him, wrapping him in blankets.

 

“He needs a partner so he can feel claimed,” his handler’s voice was cold, “Otherwise he might get extremely ill.”

 

Ellion stiffened to his right.  He could tell it was her because she felt the way light looks, glowing into wherever their skin made contact.

 

His body was still shaking, and now he felt like a fever was setting over him.  He needed all of the blankets off of him and he needed a thousand more blankets.  Keith started kicking, yelling out something that Keith wasn’t even sure was a word at all.

 

“He’s very popular, I’m sure that we can find someone who would do it…” Ellion’s voice was cut off when suddenly Keith’s hands stilled on the body to the other side of him.

 

Opening his eyes suddenly, he realized that the shaking arms holding him on the other side, looking terrified, was Lance.  His dark hair framed his scared face, cheeks red and eyes a little puffy.

 

Yes, Lance.  Lance was the one he put his scent out to to begin with.  Lance was the one who was supposed to respond and claim him, right?  Lance was supposed to be his mate. Lance, Lance…

 

“Lance,” Keith’s voice was low-pitched and smooth as honey.  “Lance, I need you…”

 

He felt Ellion climb out of the bed as Keith curled up to Lance, his head resting against Lance’s chest and arms encircling his waist.  

 

“What should I do?!” Lance’s voice was frantic as he clutched Keith to him, rubbing his arm to try to warm him up.

 

“You’re not supposed to be fraternizing with him either, at least not yet,” his handler said in a cold voice, and it occurred to Keith that he didn’t even know her name.  Lance stiffened.

 

Ellion suddenly laid a hand gently on Keith’s back.  “Lethyr, you have to let Lance go. He can’t help you, either.”

 

Blind panic overtook him, and he doesn’t remember much after that.  Something warm was taken away from him. Bright lights sparked behind his closed eyes as the pain started to settle into his muscles and make him spasm in agony.

 

Then, large hands were lifting Keith up and carrying him.  The body was warm, and Keith nuzzled up to it, hoping it could start to cure the chill that had settled over him completely.

 

After that, he realized he was in a familiar bed, but he couldn’t put together whose it was.  Then his clothes were being removed, and Keith sobbed in relief as something entered him and made every frayed nerve on his body hum.

 

It felt right.  It felt incredible.  “Ah, yes please, come inside of me, claim me…”

 

His words were broken off and slurred, and he heard a deep voice whisper into his ear, “You’re mine tonight, Lethyr,” and Lethyr felt a tongue lick into his ear that, with how relieved he felt, had made him only moan brokenly.

 

The cock inside of him was huge, and soon Keith’s senses started returning to him.  He still felt hot, but the person who was crowding over him felt good. It started feeling familiar.

 

As someone came inside him, Keith found it in himself to open his eyes again.  His head lolled at the ecstasy of feeling filled, and he caught sight of himself in the mirror.

 

It was the Grand Ambassador who had him begging.  There was some semblance of horror inside of him, but the happiness was bursting like starlight over his whole body, and it was quickly overtaken by contentment.

 

“You’re such a good boy, Lethyr,” the Grand Ambassador’s large hands came up to Keith’s face, and Keith could feel the Ambassador’s fingers gently move over his blissed out expression.

 

“I feel good,” Keith mumbled incoherently, feeling the come start to leak out as the cock was removed from him.  “Come inside me again.”

 

The Grand Ambassador dipped his thumb into Keith’s mouth, and he smiled, all fangs and blue luminance in the dark lighting of the room.

 

Again, and again.  Keith started to come back to himself, and by time the Grand Ambassador had finished with Keith for their fifth round, the calm happiness had turned sour.

 

“That Galra was right,” the Ambassador’s arms were holding Keith tight against him, spooning in the bed, “Your mating smell is delightful.”

 

Stiffening, Keith whispered, “Is that why he came over to me?”

 

A grin stretched across the face pressed against his neck.  “You were giving off enough pheromones to rile up everyone in the room.  I’m surprised that your original suitor would abandon you in such a state.”

 

Oh, oh no.  Keith had been turned on by Lance, and by instinct he must have been secreting…

 

That cinnamon sugar scent that Keith realized he could still smell…

 

He hadn’t ever given off his  _ own  _ scent before.  He wasn’t even sure he would have a mating scent to begin with.  Keith’s hands were shaking as he clasped them tightly together, trying not to be too stiff in the Ambassador’s arms.

 

“Your handler came to me with the request, and I think it’s a wonderful idea.  I’ll be sad to see you go, though. I’ve spent some of my best days buried inside of you.”

 

The possessive drawl in the voice made Keith shake involuntarily, and he whispered, “So Lance can court me?”

 

“This all has to be very hush-hush,” the voice behind him was gentle and reassuring, but for the first time in hours, it didn’t make Keith want to melt.  It instead made Keith want to burn the whole world down. “I’ll let you two get to know each other better. You aren’t allowed to have unprotected sex of any kind.  He can only court you for two hours out of the day, and the rest will be spent working. Outside of your courting hours, you are not allowed contact unless it serves a functional purpose.”

 

All the rules bounced around in Keith’s head as a chill settled over him, different than before.

 

This chill was the resolute, quiet feeling of recognizing that he wasn’t allowed to be upset yet.  The new feeling settled over him, and he asked, “Am I sleeping here?”

 

“If I’m going to lose you soon, so I want to get you to myself for as long as possible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this fic is going to deal with how Keith is able to compartmentalize all of the shit that goes down, and I promise you it won't all just get swept under the rug. I'm here for realistic characters, despite the nature of the content here. 
> 
> Leave me a comment or kudos if you want to make my day! Subscribe if you want to hop on this crazy train with me.
> 
> If you like this, check out my other Voltron fics!


	5. Sylvia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see what transpired with the Galran general from Lance's eyes. Then, Lance seeks solace in an unexpected place, and Allura questions his whereabouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey loves<3
> 
> So I'm introducing a character in this chapter that I love very much. Please try not to hate on her too much, as I promise that she won't derail the story at all. 
> 
> Also, thank you to all the people who have been so supportive<33333 Your comments and kind words give me life. If any of you guys have questions or requests, feel free to reach out to me using my tumblr (painted-lady12) or my twitter (painted_lady12).
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. Forced sex is rape no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic does not condone any of the actions taken within it, and in fact will work to allow the main characters to take down the organization. Due to the nature of this content, please be prepared to deal with potential consent issues.

Lance had only left for a few minutes.  He left to talk to Keith’s handler so that they could get alone time together and they could fake a courting, but when he turned around…

 

There was a hulking Galra who had Keith in his lap, hands sliding all over Keith’s leather-clad body.  Lance knew that he was just working, and he knew the promise he made, but he also knew the rules here. 

 

He turned to speak with the handler for a few moments, who seemed to be willing to work with them to make the arrangements.  In fact, the handler was looking excited. “Lethyr is a good worker, but I get this feeling that he’d appreciate a more… intimate relationship.”

 

However, as soon as the handler looked over Lance’s shoulder, she stiffened up and snapped at a few of the nearby workers.

 

Soon the two of them were surrounded in their booth, and Lance went to grab Keith and get him away from the Galra but… when Lance touched the smaller man, Keith looked feral.  His pupils were blown wide like a distressed wild animal. As soon as he realized it was Lance he’d shrunk back as if slapped.

 

Lance’s hands were shaking as he saw Keith’s face twist with hurt, and he felt one of the other escorts come past him and pick Keith up in her arms.

 

Then they were walking, and Lance and Keith’s handler were running to keep up with the ethereal escort who was whispering reassuring things to Keith.  Keith, who had started shaking and crying out. Lance heard Keith whimper “Ellion” a few times, which was probably her name. They made it to the private entertainment rooms and Lance watched Ellion crawl into bed to warm Keith, and she nodded to his other side.

 

“He needs contact right now,” she instructed, and then looked up at the handler, whose face was grim.

 

They talked some about how Keith was in shock, but Lance couldn’t help but still smell that sweet cinnamon sugar scent, and in surprise Lance leaned forward and sniffed Keith’s neck.

 

It was coming from him?

 

Keith started kicking and rolling around until his hands landed on Lance on his other side, and Keith breathed out a sigh of relief.

 

“Lance,” Keith’s voice was low-pitched and smooth as honey.  “Lance, I need you…”

 

Keith started cuddling up next to Lance, gripping him with an intensity that Lance couldn’t just ignore.  He was sure that Keith was in some sort of pain, but he didn’t know how to help, and if Keith kept saying his name like that Lance was going to start getting the wrong idea.

 

“What should I do?!” Lance’s voice was frantic as he clutched Keith to him, rubbing his arm to try to warm him up.

 

“You’re not supposed to be fraternizing with him either, at least not yet,” his handler said without emotion, and Lance felt Keith start to cry openly against his shoulder.

 

Ellion suddenly laid a hand gently on Keith’s back, and he tried to get away from her and towards Lance but Lance had started moving away, too.  “Lethyr, you have to let Lance go. He can’t help you, either.”

 

That was when the screaming started.

 

At some point he had fallen to the side of the bed and was clutching Keith’s hand as he sobbed out and brokenly moaned in their little soundproof room.

 

“I’ll be back,” the handler said darkly then, and Ellion and Lance each had a hand on either side of Keith as he shook and tears fell down his face.

 

Lance had never seen Keith in pain before.  Keith was tough enough to just throw duct tape on it and ignore the wound when it occurred.  This, though, it was like his skin was overheated and oversensitive and his whole body was a pale, shaking mess.

 

That was when the handler came back with the Grand Ambassador.

 

Protectiveness came over Lance suddenly, and he found himself running between the Ambassador and Keith, throat tightening in panic.  Keith was already in so much pain, he couldn’t… Lance couldn’t just hand him over.

 

“Lance, back away,” Ellion’s voice was deadpan, and Lance could feel his chest ache from the emotional rollercoaster of a day.

 

He’d made a promise, though, and even though Lance couldn’t watch as this man took Keith away, he also had no other choice.

 

The Grand Ambassador came over to the side of the bed and gently leaned over, brushing Keith’s hair back from his face almost reverently.

 

“You’re the one who wants him?” the taller Dalmite asked as he lifted Keith from the bed like a doll and tucked him close to his chest, bridal style.  Lance stiffened at the sight of Keith so vulnerable like that, panting and shaking and clutching the front of the Ambassadors suit. However, he nodded at the Ambassador, who then responded, “I’ll try to make sure he’s still in working condition after this.”

 

Ice started collecting in his veins, and everything in him wanted to follow them and help Keith, but he’d made a promise that was making less and less sense the longer he was here.

 

After they’d left, Lance fell to his knees in the room, ears ringing, still hearing Keith’s sobs, still hearing Keith whisper his name like a promise, still hearing Keith’s voice as he made Lance promise not to intervene.

 

Ellion kneeled down next to Lance.  “Come on, let’s get you up.”

 

The woman was shimmering silver, almost metallic.  Lance hadn’t even really noticed, before, but she was one of the most beautiful beings he’d ever met.

 

As she helped Lance up, he gulped, wondering how he could miss the hottest woman in this place when they’d been practically triple spooning, but he knew why he hadn’t noticed her.  He knew where his attention had gone to.

 

“You can sit in here for a few minutes to collect yourself,” a voice said, and Lance fell back onto the bed, a warm hand on his arm to keep him grounded in reality.

 

“What happened to him?” Lance whispered softly, breathing slowly and trying his best not to fall apart.

 

“Galra give off mating scents.  It seemed like he was giving one off to you but you walked away, so one of the Galra who smelled it responded and came over to him.  He was laying the pheromones on thick to try to convince Lethyr to do something stupid.”

 

“That all happened because he smelled like a fucking churro!?” Lance was hysterical, and started laughing in a crazed sort of way, “Wait…”

 

Lance remembered the way Keith had begged on stage.  Lance remembered how feverish he’d looked, how much he was desperate to be fucked.  

 

Lance remembered the look in Keith’s eyes when he was taken away from the Galra.

 

Things were starting to come together in ways that he wasn’t prepared for, in ways that made Lance look up in horror to the escort who had stayed with him.

 

“They dose him with pheromones.”

 

Lance stated it as a fact.  Ellion didn’t argue with him, her shining face staring at him piteously.  Her eyes were clear like diamonds, glittering even in the low lighting.

 

After a little while the door opened, and someone told Ellion that she had a client.  She grimaced, kneeling in front of Lance hesitantly.

 

“You seem like you actually care about him,” the look on her face was so sad, and Lance couldn’t meet her eyes, “Find someone else.  Loving one of us always ends badly, Lance. You’re a defender of the universe. The last thing you need is damaged goods to weigh you down.”

 

Her voice wasn’t cruel, and when Lance looked at her face, he realized that she was already closed off.

 

“Good-bye,” she walked out of the room, leaving Lance alone, trying not to imagine what was happening to Keith right now somewhere else in this building.

  
  


***

  
  


As he sat out in the entertainment floor waiting for the hour to end, he came to a conclusion about something.

 

He watched the escorts skirt around the edges of the room, and one had started making her way over to him.

 

“Well hey there, strong guy,” she looked like a normal girl, but yellow and with slits instead of a nose, making her whole face flatten out.  “I’ve been told that you are a paladin of Voltron.”

 

Tensing up, Lance thought about how he wanted to proceed.  

 

A few thoughts ran through his mind.

 

The first was Keith expressing that they had two important objectives: obtain the log, and keep Keith’s cover.

 

The second was Lance realizing that if he didn’t start looking like he wanted to stick around, the other Dalmites were going to get suspicious.

 

Biting his lip, Lance looked up at her, laying on the classic Lance charm.

 

“Hey there, beautiful,” Lance’s smile after that was easy, dimple giving him the added adorableness, “How would you like to spend tonight with me?”

 

She sat down next to him, looking up through her long, feathery eyelashes.  Lance did think she was pretty. Actually, she was more than pretty. She was stunningly beautiful, and Lance couldn’t help but feel a little powerful that she’d come over to him.

 

Standing up, he held out his hand for her.  “After you, m’lady.”

 

Giggling, they went to the elevator.  Once inside, her fingers started traveling up his arm, and she was gasping as she felt out his biceps.  “You feel like you could lift me up against a wall,” her eyes twinkled with interest, and Lance felt his heart flutter.  She was small enough, he could probably pull it off.

 

“We can always test that theory,” Lance whispered covertly, and once they got off on Lance’s floor, they were running for his room.

 

Once they got into the room, though, Lance’s stomach dropped when his communicator was going off like crazy.

 

“Ooooh, what’s that?” she asked excitedly, bending over in her tight leather corset and skirt and poking it.

 

Frantic, Lance came over and snatched it up.  “I have to make a call. Why don’t you go clean up in the bathroom?” Lance’s face was panicked, but he tried to pull of nonchalant.

 

Shrugging, she went into the bathroom, and Lance opened his communicator, seeing Shiro and Allura looking livid.

 

“Do you know how irresponsible you’ve been?!  You haven’t contacted us in… Shiro how long has it been?” Allura was so mad that she couldn’t think straight.

 

“You should be back by now,” Shiro supplied helpfully, and Allura nodded, pointing at Shiro with gusto.

 

“Yes, that!”

 

Swallowing, Lance said simply, “I’ve been schmoozing the Grand Ambassador,” he lied easily, though he wanted to murder the Grand Ambassador at the moment.  No one could know he was helping Keith. He had to make it seem…

 

“Hey strong guy, I need help to untie my corset!” a bright voice came from the bathroom, and Lance’s face started burning.  This was unexpectedly perfect circumstances, but it still made him seethe that Shiro and Allura knew that he had a... lady caller.

 

Shiro raised an eyebrow.  “Did you pick someone up at a bar?”

 

Biting his lip, Lance tried to pull up an excuse on the fly.  “I, um, am being treated by the Grand Ambassador.”

 

It took a moment to process, before Allura snapped her fingers, face turning happy instead of furious.  “Alright, so you’re playing along! Making sure not to rudely deny their hospitality! That’s very smart Lance!”

 

The dude with the white tuft of hair looked less impressed.  “A hooker, Lance? Really?”

 

His heart was beating very fast all of a sudden.  “Not a hooker. Just a girl for me to spend time with.  Also, hooker implies something about her character. She isn’t just some woman I picked off of the street.  Even if I did, I would appreciate if you didn’t insult my guest, Shiro.”

 

Lance didn’t think that he’d ever talked back to Shiro like that.  The other man was flabbergasted. “Fine.”

 

Allura nodded then, thinking to herself.  “Alright, so you don’t need backup? If we don’t sign this deal with this planet the whole solar system is going to back out.”

 

This was the tricky part.  Lance knew that this deal wasn’t going to get signed.  Lance also knew that him still being here had to seem legitimate.  Conveying that message to the princess, however, was…

 

“Lance!  I still need help if you ever want to get me out of this thing” the escort’s voice came from the bathroom again, and Lance fumbled with the communicator.  

 

“I’ll update you guys in a few days,” he said quickly, and Allura and Shiro’s faces were horrified, both of them yelling “days?!” before it was turned off.

 

Better they think that he was on this planet slacking off than them knowing the real reason he was sticking around.

 

Taking a deep breath, he entered the bathroom.  She was standing in front of the mirror, holding the leather pieces of her corset to her body.

 

“You just need to untie the ribbon on the side,” she said softly, and Lance came over to her, hesitant to touch her.

 

“Hey, you know that you don’t have to do this, right?”

 

Her eyes snapped up to him, widening.  “What do you mean?”

 

“We can just go to sleep, or you can just hang out up here until you get bored.  Honestly, you…”

 

Her lips thinned then, and she looked incredibly… frustrated?

 

“I don’t understand.  Am I not pretty enough?”

 

Stunned and eyebrows coming together in confusion, Lance answered, “no, of course not!”

 

“Am I too strange?  Is it my nose?” her eyes were watching Lance like a hawk, trying to gauge his facial expressions in case it gave anything away.  Lance was at a loss, making odd hand gestures without knowing what to do or say in the situation, so he just shook his head rapidly.

 

“What is it, then?”

 

Sighing, Lance pinched the bridge of his nose.  “I just wanted someone to stay with me. I won’t force you to do anything.”

 

“But…” suddenly her perfect lips came up into a perfect pout, “What if I want to?”

 

That was completely unexpected.  Lance opened and closed his mouth like a fish, face turning a little pink in embarrassment and confusion.

 

“What… you want to have sex with me?”

 

Her brows furrowed.  “I didn’t have to walk up to you.  I hit my quota for the week already.  I went up to you because you looked like you could show me a good time,” her face softened suddenly, her hand reaching out to caress Lance’s cheek, “I don’t need some big strong man to protect me.  I came to you because I wanted to. I came to you because I’m attracted to you. I heard you were a hero or something.”

 

Now that the shock had worn off, Lance could feel his heart hammer in his chest.  “Yeah… you could say that,” his hand came up to meet hers, lacing their fingers together.  He thought about the dynamic. How could he ensure that she was the one in control? How could he let her know that he wouldn’t force her into anything?  Then, the idea struck, and he said softly, “What can I do for you, master?”

 

Her hand started to draw back from Lance as her eyes widened, but he held it tightly.

 

“I…” her brows lowered, and without further questions she guided Lance’s hand to the ribbon on her corset.

 

Lance undid it slowly, the ribbon smoothly sliding through his hands, a little cold against the chilly air.  He wondered if he could tie someone up with this ribbon. His mind wandered to someone else, but he shook his head to clear it.

 

When her corset was shed, she quickly shucked off the rest of her clothes until she was standing before him, heavy breasts slimming down to a narrow waist and perfect, wide hips.  Lance whistled at the sight of her. “I’ll do whatever you want,” he said with sincerity, “tell me where you want me.”

 

Her face flushed a pale color, coming over to tug at Lance’s shirt.  “Off,” she commanded, and Lance shed it immediately.

 

Her fingers came to the pants next.  “Off,” she was smiling now, staring up at him like he was her personal plaything.

 

It was driving Lance insane in the best way.

 

“Okay, Mr. Hero,” she said as both of them stood before each other with not clothes separating them, “Let’s see if you can make good on that promise about the wall.”

 

Grinning toothily, Lance came over to her, standing tall over her and crowding her back against the bathroom wall.  Then, he ducked down, and she squealed when Lance lifted her up onto his shoulders, so that his face was situated right at her crotch.  Her legs tightened around him as she was pressed against the wall. Her fingers started weaving through his hair.

 

“Get me off like that,” she commanded suddenly, playfully pushing Lance’s hair in all directions so he looked wrecked already.

 

“Your wish,” Lance responded, and he licked his lips, leaning forward until his tongue could lick a stripe up her inner thigh until it was teasing her labia, taking some of the skin between his teeth and then sucking, hard.

 

Her breath punched out of her, and she groaned happily, saying softly, “Just like that, baby.”

 

Lance came back for a minute, looking up from between her strong thighs.  “What’s your name?”

 

“Sylvia,” she whispered, and then Lance dove back in, fucking his tongue into her slit and, when he teased past the entrance, pressing it wildly against her walls.  Lance knew how to do this. He had had sex a few times back on earth with other ladies. Finding eligible men was a little trickier, so most of his experience was with the latter, not the former.  He knew what he was doing, and she was living it up, fingernails biting into Lance’s scalp with the intensity of her stimulation.

 

“Your mouth,” she moaned deliciously as Lance sucked at her clit, “Ah, I could do this for hours.”

 

Lance’s shoulders were starting to get sore, so he didn’t know about hours, but he did think he had an idea to fix that problem.  His tongue came back, and he took her clit between his teeth gently, and flicked his tongue over the exposed skin.

 

She actually screamed, and Lance did it again, making her voice dissolve into frantic cries of ecstasy.  Her entire body tensed as she orgasmed, legs shaking and voice cracking, fingers falling out of Lance’s hair as she slumped against the wall.

 

Carefully he lowered her down to the floor and picked her up bridal style.  He brought her over to the bed and laid her down, and as he went to tuck her in, her eyes snapped open, giving Lance a death glare.

 

“You think,” she snatched Lance’s hand, “you can give me the orgasm of my life and then just tuck me in?”

 

That was how she’d ended up bent over the side of his bed.  Nervousness actually started to sink into him, now. He had never had sex without a condom on, and he knew that genetically it wasn’t possible for him to reproduce with her, but there was something still so intimate about there being nothing between them.  As Lance entered her, he felt the tight heat enclose around his cock, making his whole body light up with giddiness.

 

“You’re perfect,” Lance whispered through a string of curses, “Let me make you feel good.”

 

Sylvia hadn’t been lying, either.  She was eagerly pushing back against him as he thrust into her, making each of their meeting of hips rough.  It made both of them pant within minutes. 

 

“How much would you hate me if I came now?” Lance bit out, trying to restrain himself from thrusting forward and finishing within a few minutes.

 

Giggling, then inhaling sharply as he hit her sweet spot, she finished, “Go ahead, come inside of me.”

 

He didn’t need telling twice.

 

As they laid together afterward, she held her hand up for a high-five.  Lance, breathing heavily and wiped from the workout, met her hand for a shitty high-five that they both just snorted at.

 

“This is how it’s supposed to be,” she said softly then, pressing her lips against Lance’s shoulder.

 

“Hmm?”

 

Biting at the skin on his shoulder now, she muttered, “It’s supposed to be this easy.  It’s supposed to be fun and exciting and a little dangerous. Is this what it’s like out there?”

 

It took a moment for Lance to realize what she meant.

 

“Yeah, it can be,” Lance’s voice wavered a bit, watching as she looked up at him with wide eyes.  

 

“Someday I’m going to get this collar off,” she motioned to the thin band around her neck, “and I’m going to find the people I want to want.”

 

His lips pulled up into a smile.  “How do you know I won’t tattle on you?”

 

Narrowing her eyes, she muttered, “you’re a hero, right?  Heroes aren’t tattle-tales. Heroes look out for the wellbeing of the little guy, like me!” she pointed towards herself, nosing back to Lance’s neck to breathe heavily there.  “I wouldn’t mind doing this again.”

 

The two of them fell asleep like that, tangled together in the sheets.  Right before they passed out, she muttered, “Thank you, for letting me take the wheel.”

 

Sliding into sleep himself, he just whispered, “It was hot as hell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like what you see, leave a kudos, comment, or subscribe! 
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! It's mostly YOI or Voltron. I have another Klance fic that is slowly updating here [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1047074) and a Shidge fic that I'm working on some follow-up one shots for here [there](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484139/chapters/30918801)


	6. Ellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance take time to figure out how they feel, and both make shocking discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy season 7 release day!!! I haven't finished yet I WILL NOT TOLERATE SPOILERS if there are any spoilers on this fic I will kill all of your favorites off painfully YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
> 
> ...so anyway, hello lovelies!
> 
> I'm still so overwhelmed that people are enjoying this idea? It's the perfect example of "write what you wish you could read" and the fact that other people have come along for the ride makes my heart soar<3 comments do give me life, though, so if you're enjoying it show me a little love. You've all been incredible so far<3
> 
> I've written most of the fic already, and have the rest mapped out. I can't wait to show you what I have!!!
> 
> Also, I would like to forewarn that they talk a little more about Keith's gender/sexuality in this for a brief portion of time. So everyone is clear: Keith is a hermaphrodite, he still identifies as a boy, and he identifies as gay.
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. Forced sex is rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic DOESN'T excuse any of the actions taken by characters, and in fact will work to try to take apart the operation altogether. Due to the nature of this topic, be prepared to deal with potential consent issues and explicit sexual content
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

A few months back, Lance remembers walking in on Keith.

 

It was a complete accident, of course.  Lance hadn’t intended to, and when the door of his room opened and Lance saw Keith, bent over his own bed by one of the diplomats’ sons, he froze in place.  Neither of them saw Lance, either, as the door opening is almost silent. It might have also been Keith’s gasps and pants masking the sound, but that remains to be seen.

 

So Lance stood there for a few minutes, dumbstruck.  He could only see the back of the diplomat and Keith’s upper body as he fisted the sheets.  The black paladin’s cheeks were flushed red, his eyes closed tightly. His breath was escaping him unevenly between moans, and Lance remembers Keith smiling at just that moment because the diplomat must have did it _ just right _ at that moment.

 

Carefully Lance backed up and closed the door.  He’d gone to ask Keith a question about the training simulations, but apparently Keith was occupied at the moment.

 

Why was Lance so restless?  What was it about seeing that that…

 

...his eyes had opened wide as he turned another corner, a few hallways away at this point but frozen in shock.  In his standard overdramatic fashion Lance had fallen against the wall of the hallway, sliding down to the floor as he started shaking.

 

This was when he realized that he felt something for Keith.

 

It wasn’t anything he could get a sense of.  It was untouchable in the way that made Lance uncomfortable.  He couldn’t make out what it was, but he knew that he’d stumbled upon something that day.

 

Then the dreams started.

 

They were usually pretty tame all things considered.  Just Keith and him holding hands and walking through an earth park, or Keith and him talking quietly under a vast expanse of stars.

 

That was about when Lance figured out that he liked Keith.

 

Within days of this realization, however, Keith left for the Blade of Marmora.  Lance remembers watching Keith leave with a hole in his gut, like Keith had taken a piece of him with him when he left.  

 

At this point, he became certain of this fact.

 

So when Lance had seen Keith in the Grand Ambassador’s office, being used as a fucking sex slave, Lance had been thrown for a loop.  Now he’s sitting up in bed, watching Sylvia’s chest rise and fall. 

 

Even after she had rocked his world, all he could think about was Keith.  Was he okay, even with the Grand Ambassador? Did he hate Lance for abandoning him?

 

Lance’s fingers tapped idly against his chest, trying to figure out how he could make this up to Keith.  Lance had abandoned him, according to his instincts. Ellion had made that very clear to Lance with no room for questioning.  That cinnamon sugar smell had been pleasant, but he didn’t think… he didn’t know…

 

Except, didn’t he?  When Lance started to move away to talk to his handler, Keith had whimpered.  He’d whimpered like Lance had physically wounded him. Lance should have known to stay.  Lance should have known to be there for Keith.

 

Sylvia stirred a little bit and rolled over onto her side, arms finding Lance’s and curling into them.

 

Sex with Sylvia had been fun.  It had been more than fun, in fact.  They were both all over each other. 

 

...but Lance has known how he’s felt for Keith for a long time.  Lance has slept with other people in that time to try to fill that void.  It was always a good time, but in the end it wasn’t  _ him _ .

 

At the thought Lance groaned, wanting to slap himself for being such a hopeless romantic.  Why couldn’t he just move on? Why was he stuck on this one person that he ached to be with?  Why did it run down to the very core of his being?

 

Sighing, Lance turned over so that he was tucked against Sylvia’s front, becoming little spoon.  She hummed happily, wrapping her arms around him and sighing against the nape of his neck.

 

He fell asleep, just like that.

  
  


***

  
  


When Keith woke up, it was to hands stroking back his hair.

 

He was alone in the Grande Ambassador’s expansive bed.  Ellion was kneeling next to him, biting her lip as her clear eyes sparkled in concern.

 

“How… how did you get up here?” Keith grimaced, sitting up.  He was tangled in the silky sheets, and he could feel his whole body groan with the movement.  It felt like someone had shoved a brand inside of him and twisted, but he tried to keep a straight face.

 

Ellion stood up, her eveningwear swishing around her.  Keith recognized the comfortable nightgown that he had been offered before he politely tried to explain that he was a boy.

 

Their argument back was that Keith was both a boy and a girl.

 

Keith’s response to that was that he could decide what he was and wasn’t, thank you very much.

 

So as he watched Ellion go over to the dresser where a pitcher was steaming, he asked again, “Did you sneak out?”

 

Shaking her head, she dipped a cloth into the pitcher and took it out, wringing the extra liquid out as the steam curled into the air.  “Sable asked me to come check on you. She was worried.”

 

Keith racked his brain to remember who Sable was before Ellion rolled her eyes.

 

“Your handler, Lethyr.  Did he fuck your brains out last night or something?”

 

This attitude was a little acerbic for Ellion, and Keith found himself wincing at the comment.

 

She sighed, bringing the cloth over and gently nudging Keith.  His cheeks flamed red as he rolled over and she started wiping him down.  The hot liquid soothed his aching muscles and the cloth left his skin feeling lighter and cleaner.  After the first few strokes Keith had loosened up and wasn’t embarrassed anymore, letting Ellion take care of him.

 

As her warm, deft hands smoothed out across Keith’s skin with the cloth, she said, “I thought I was in love, once.”

 

Blinking, Keith wanted to look back to catch her eye but was stuck on his stomach still.  Instead, he asked quietly, “what happened?”

 

“There was once a man who treated me like a queen.  He ordered me every night of the week he was here. At the end of the week, he told the Grande Ambassador that he wanted to buy me.”

 

Her voice was reserved as she worked on him, almost clinical.  Keith could feel the warm water trickle between his legs and over his sides to dampen the sheets, but he could hardly find it in himself to care.

 

He let Ellion collect herself and wet the cloth again, sliding it back over Keith with a renewed warmth.  The feeling was unbelievably calming, and he knew that she might need to take her time with this.

 

“The man was a Dalmite from another system, one where they had also taken the planet from the locals.  When we were together, he treated me as precious and valuable. When he asked to buy me, the Grande Ambassador told him that he could never afford to buy me off of him.  My suitor had a… temper… and before he knew it he had beaten the Grande Ambassador’s face to a pulpy mess.”

 

Keith tensed up, shivering suddenly as his wet skin started to cool.

 

“They got him away and detained him in a holding cell downstairs.  Then, as punishment for hurting the Grande Ambassador so badly, he was forced to watch me while a group of Galran soldiers… well, you get the picture,” Keith heard the grimace rather than saw it, and her hands slowed over his skin.

 

“You just… you can’t get your hopes up,” Ellion’s voice was soothing and motherly all of a sudden, and Keith felt a sudden rush of fondness for the person taking care of him right now.

 

It occurred then that Ellion was talking about his relationship to Lance.  The cloth was taken back from him, and Keith felt himself go cold thinking about Lance.

 

Lance.   _ Fucking Lance.   _

 

It was an immediate bodily response: he felt cold all over.  Lance had abandoned him while he was practically begging for the physical contact.  Keith retracted suddenly, holding his legs up to his chest and wrapping his arms around himself.

 

“Hey, you don’t get to hide,” Ellion snapped, then took Keith’s arm to nudge him up.  “Come on, you know that your instincts suck sometimes. Lance isn’t able to sense Galran mating scents.”

 

Pouting, Keith felt himself going red.  “That’s not…” but she leveled an unamused stare at him and he just sat up, hands contracting into fists.  “Fine, I know how stupid it is that I feel this way. Do you think that I want to be this needy? I didn’t… I didn’t even know I could give off a mating scent…” Keith crossed his arms over his chest, shamelessly ass naked in front of the pitying woman.

 

“He was a mess after you were taken away, Lethyr.  I’m not worried about how he feels about you. I just… I don’t think that you can trust anything that this place offers.”

 

Then she dug around in a small bag and handed over a pair of loose pants and a t-shirt.  “Sable is waiting for you at your room to do the swab. I didn’t wash away anything essential, so there shouldn’t be any issue.”

 

Keith snatched the clothes away, quickly dressing and avoiding eye contact.

 

“There’s one other thing though,” she said gently as if she was worried Keith would crumble.  Just the insinuation had Keith seeing red. “That Galran general? The one that was trying to mate you?  He’s still here.”

 

As Keith shrugged on his shirt, he left the room, letting his mind go blank.

 

None of this would bother him.

 

Breathe in, breathe out, relax.

 

He would have to deal with these emotions later.

  
  


***

  
  


When he walked into his entryway, his small handler jumped up, crowding up into Keith’s space.  “Lethyr thank goodness! I was worried sick…”

 

Containing his anger, he brushed past her.  “Do the check.”

 

Blinking rapidly, she cleared her throat.  “Alright, let me do that, then.”

 

Sable was her name, huh?  Why didn’t Keith ever bother to learn it?  Maybe it was just another tie here that he didn’t want to leave hanging after he was extracted.  Maybe he was trying to protect himself from more pain.

 

After his handler completed her swabs and tests, she sat Keith down for a moment.

 

“The Galran general is still here, but he is on a warning from the property.  If he gets within twenty feet of you the guards are advised to act immediately.  Also, I have some good news!”

 

Keith’s sore muscles were slowly making a comeback, cramping back up after walking here and letting his body cool.  “What?”

 

“Your first supervised courting period is scheduled for tomorrow night!  All the arrangements have been made. I’ll go over the guidelines with the two of you when you get to your private rooms.”

 

Oh, right, Keith had set this up so that Lance and him could scheme and get the ledger.  Suddenly the dark helplessness that he’d been feeling for the last few hours was replaced with a newfound drive to complete his mission and help the people in need.

 

“When tomorrow?”

 

“Eight to ten, I believe.  Imagine if you got to be taken into the custody of a famous hero!  You’d live such a magnificent life…” her eyes were starry and Keith was thoroughly confused.  His handler looked honestly excited for him, and Keith wasn’t sure whether he should trust it or her at this point in time.

 

As she left, and Keith curled under the covers in the safety of his private quarters, he wonders idly if maybe there was something more to Sable than he originally anticipated.

 

The thought spun into his dreams, all of them just snapshots of Keith at the castle with his family: him and Pidge reading back to back in the den, Shiro and him kicking the crap out of each other in the training room, Allura and him discussing the history of the Galra empire and forming strategies together, and finally him and Hunk and Coran playing cards late into the night.

 

Then there was Lance, always Lance, fighting with him over breakfast, or sitting on the bridge talking about earth, or going over missions looking for ways to improve the efficiency of Voltron, and Keith was in his happy place once again.

  
  


***

  
  


The next day, Keith sat patiently on the bed in the courting room.  Sable was clicking around on her tablet a few feet away, extremely focused on what she was doing.

 

A knock came at the door then, and Lance walked in nervously.  His face was open and pinched, like he’d been worrying all day.  Upon seeing Keith relief flooded over him and he quickly made to get over to him.

 

Sable cleared her throat, though.  “You two can get to your… courting once I review the rules.  No intercourse without protection, and no mating marks. If it looks like one of those things will happen security will be in the room in seconds,” she clicked around her tablet for a minute more, “If you have any questions you can buzz to me with the button by the door.”

 

Then, with a short nod she sped from the room, heels clicking against floor before slamming the door behind her.

 

Two blue eyes were searching in Keith’s, and Keith felt completely unprepared for the raw emotion that Lance was showing right now.  It overtook Keith in a rush, and his breathing picked up as Lance’s arms encircled him and held his head tightly into the crook of his neck.

 

“I’m sorry,” Lance’s voice was cracking, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to abandon you.  I didn’t… Keith I can’t begin to…”

 

No!  He wasn’t ready for these emotions yet.  Keith shushed Lance suddenly, running his shaking hands through Lance’s short brown locks.  “What’s done is done.”

 

Gently Keith started scooting farther back on the bed and Lance followed him like he was possessed, like losing contact with Keith was physically painful.  Keith swallowed the lump in his throat as Lance settled next to him, their shoulders touching and faces bent close together.

 

From this distance, Keith could see Lance’s freckles across his nose.  Keith could see the wrinkles from worry slice across Lance’s forehead, and without thinking his hand came up and smoothed over the skin there, fingers then running down Lance’s nose and brushing his lips.  The sight of his fingers catching on Lance’s pout did things to Keith that he didn’t know could be done.

 

Breathing heavily and looking away, Keith whispered, “We need to talk about the plan.”

 

Blinking, Lance’s blue eyes widened before drooping, disappointment clear in his features.  “What is the plan?”

 

“You have a gold card,” Keith turned so his whole body was propped on his side and was closer to Lance so that it would be more difficult to read his lips.  “That means you can get back to the private back rooms. That’s where they entertain the less… savory… kinks.”

 

His flawless skin is blushing suddenly, and Lance turns so that they are facing each other, breath tickling each other’s faces.  “Do I even want to know?”

 

Keith shook his head.  “No, you don’t. The Grand Ambassador’s office for matters pertaining to the casino is back there.  It’s where contracts are drawn up for things that might be a little riskier for the business. My plan is for you to go back there under the guise that you want to utilize their services.  I don’t care what weird kink you use. A copy of the ledger should be in the records room, which is where the contract for your request will be drawn up, signed, and stored. Then you need to effectively distract them, and slip the ledger into your bag.”

 

“That seems simple enough,” Lance said cheerily, but then Keith shook his head darkly.

 

“This isn’t going to be as easy as it seems.  You need to have a story worked out already about what your strange kink is.  You have to sell that you are interested in whatever you’re proposing. The contract has to be reviewed before the request can be fulfilled, so after you get the ledger get out of there.  Here’s the catch,” Keith’s face darkened, the one part of his plan that he was still working on, “somehow we need to find a place to store the ledger that we can get to during extraction. The ledger will be way too big for us to just carry around, and our rooms can be searched any minute.”

 

“We can figure that out later,” Lance said softly, unthinkingly bringing his hand up to rub soothingly on Keith’s hip.

 

Emotion welled up in Keith then at the intimacy of the gesture.  Without thinking too hard about it, Keith leaned forward and rested his forehead against Lance’s, and Lance let out a breath that 

he didn’t know he was holding.

 

Something broke inside of Keith as they huddled together in the bed, fully clothed and somehow still so exposed.  His lips came forward and pressed tentatively against the seam of Lance’s, who responded with a gentle press of his own.

 

It was a kiss like a match, catching fire quickly and hotly and then fluttering out in moments.  Their heads stayed bent together like this, and Keith whispered, “I forgive you.”

 

Lance’s face screwed up in emotion, a tear coming to his eye and running across the bridge of his nose.  “you are one of the strongest people that I’ve ever known.”

 

Pain swelled in his airway as Keith bit back tears, pressing his head into Lance’s chest and letting Lance’s arms encircle him.  His own arms were tight around Lance’s waist, and his warmth radiated into him in the most soothing way he’d ever felt before.

 

It was natural, like they were falling into step next to each other, or maybe that they’d been walking together this whole time and hadn’t noticed until just then.

 

Keith could feel Lance’s chest expanding and shrinking with each stuttered breath, and Keith could feel that Lance was whispering into his hair words of comfort and support but Keith was trying to just exist in the moment of feeling like he was worth something more than just a quick fuck.

 

Neither of them said anything as a sweet cinnamon-sugar scent drifted between them.  Lance just held Keith tighter, whispering reassuringly and letting Keith hold onto him as tightly as he needed to.

 

They were quiet for a long time, until Lance’s arm started to fall asleep.  He adjusted himself in an attempt not to jostle Keith, but Keith snorted and pressed Lance back against the throne of pillows piled before the headboard.

 

Lance hummed as Keith collapsed onto Lance like that, chest to chest and tucked safely between Lance’s legs.  Safe was the word he’d used before, right? This is how it felt, right now. Keith felt safe and taken care of and warm, and he couldn’t put a name to this sensation but he knew that it wasn’t new.

 

Somehow, that wasn’t surprising.

 

Somehow, the feeling of completeness that Keith felt in that moment was simultaneously terrifyingly new and reassuringly strong.

 

“Keith?” 

 

The vibrations of Lance’s chest made Keith smile adoringly.  “Yeah?”

 

“You’re safe with me.  You know that, right?” his voice was small and uncertain, and made every reservation inside of Keith wilt at the sound of it.

 

“I know.”

 

Keith was still sore and exhausted but in Lance’s arms he was home again.

 

“When should I pull off the heist?”

 

“As late as possible.  The longer we have the ledger, the longer they have to notice that it’s missing.”

 

Humming in agreement, Lance’s hands were suddenly drawing spirals and swirls against Keith’s back.  The movement was oddly calming, because Lance was trying to explore Keith’s body for no other reason than he wanted Keith to know that he cared.

 

They stayed like that for a while before Keith pulled back, looking down at Lance with sadness in his eyes.

 

“We have to… they’re going to get suspicious if we don’t…”

 

Lance’s eyes widened.  “Oh, um, I was thinking that we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

 

Keith felt like his lungs were deflating.  “I just… can we… I can’t…” his arms were shaking.

“Hey, hey,” Lance tilted Keith’s face towards him and gently brushed his hair back, “One night isn’t going to make them suspicious.”

 

His voice was too sure and soft and calming and Keith found himself clutching tightly onto the loose material of Lance’s shirt.  “Are you sure?”

 

“Of course I am.”

  
  


***

  
  


When Keith woke up, it was to a sharp dinging sound not unlike a school bell.  The door opened, and Keith groaned as Sable said calmly, “the courting period is over.”

 

Lance was blinking blearily awake, his arms tightening protectively on Keith.  Even though they were happy at that moment, Keith knew that there was no use of postponing the inevitable.

 

A hand caught his as he stood up, and Keith felt himself freezing up.  It wasn’t a rough tug, but rather a gentle pull that made Keith look back at Lance questioningly.  The smaller man’s hair was mussed and his eyebrows were in a disarray from sleep. The look in Lance’s face was exposed, even terrified.

 

“Tomorrow?” he asked quietly, and Keith nodded as Sable said, “it will be the same time tomorrow if you request it.”

 

“I request it,” Lance said without hesitating, and the two of them were watching each other with expressions of confusion and longing.  Keith couldn’t put a name to what was happening between the two of them, but he knew that it was tying his stomach in knots. Being physically apart from Lance was already taking its toll.

 

As Keith left he felt Lance’s eyes tracking him to the door, and when he turned around to catch his eyes once more, Keith saw nothing but gentle affection.

 

Was… was Lance in love with him?

 

As he walked out, the question made his brain start to feel fuzzy, and when he got back to his room to change, he couldn’t stall his shaking hands.

 

No, of course Lance wasn’t in love with him.  Lance… they cared about each other, sure, and there was definitely something between them, but love was such a powerful word.  It communicated so much, and Keith wasn’t sure he was ready to face the implications of that.

 

So he did push-ups and sit-ups and leg raises so that his worries disappeared in his workout, and got ready to head out to the social hour.

  
  


***

  
  


When Lance entered the social hour, Sylvia found him in a matter of minutes, straddling him against a couch.

 

“Darling, I was dreaming about you last night,” she purred, brushing the pads of her fingers over Lance’s cheek.

 

Smiling, Lance felt that admission hit him in the gut.  “Were you looking for a repeat performance?”

 

Biting her lip, she cocked her head to the side.  Today she was wearing metallic silver eyeliner that cast her eyes in shadow and brought out the gold hidden in the iris.  Her leather outfit was new, tied in even more complicated ways across her torso and upper thighs.

 

Sylvia was perched above Lance’s lap respectively, but Lance brought her hands up to grasp at his shoulders and pulled her down gently so that her plump ass rested comfortably on him.

 

“I actually… I wanted to talk.”

 

An amused smile forced its way upon her face.  “Alright. What do you want to talk about?”

 

The truth had been bubbling up all day, and finally he found the final bubble pop in a rush of, “I might be in love with an old friend.”

 

Suddenly Sylvia’s expression changed from playful to thoughtful, grabbing one of the drinks from a passing child.  

 

“Okay, so is that a problem?”

 

Lance had expected her to be upset to some capacity, but instead she was simply curious.  That, or she was good at hiding how she really felt.

 

Running his hand through his own hair, Lance’s blue eyes darkened as he tried to find the right words to convey what he was feeling.  “It’s not a… problem. It’s just new, and we aren’t together. I have no idea how to act around him, and I have no idea if he feels the same way about me.  Neither of us are in positions to change that anytime soon, either.”

 

Humming in understanding, Sylvia took another big swig of her bubbling purple drink, handing it to Lance.  

 

“If this conversation is going where I think it is, we will both need to be significantly more drunk.”

 

Five shared bubbly drinks later, Sylvia was playing with the hair at the nape of Lance’s neck, collapsed against his front with her face perched on his shoulder.

 

“So what you’re saying is that you need to be patient?”

 

Lance’s blue eyes widened.  “What do you mean?”

 

Thoughtful for a moment, Sylvia’s hands played with the hem of Lance’s shirt.  “It’s obvious, isn’t it? You keep talking about timing. You say that you feel this way but you guys can’t do anything about it right now.  That just means you have to be patient, right? If you are meant to be together, it will happen at the right time. Forcing something before it’s supposed to happen will just tempt fate.”

 

It made sense, actually.  Lance’s hand was rubbing her back reassuringly in the crowded room, but their tight hug was nothing compared to some of the other lewd activities happening.

 

“What were you, before all this?” Lance asked suddenly, and Sylvia tensed up under him, breath catching.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry…”

 

“No, that’s okay,” she came back to smile sadly at Lance, and he could see that he’d struck a nerve.  Her voice was secretive and almost silent when she began, “I… I was a warrior. It was my entire life.  I didn’t talk to my family, or have relationships, our one goal was to liberate ourselves. My planet took our civilization back from the Galra on our own.  I was there the day that their last sentry fell. We dug our rebellion’s flag in it’s circuits as a testament to our capability to overtake the Galra.”

 

He could see it now in the lythe stance of her body and the tightly toned muscles.  Lance could see her wielding none other than a lance on the battlefield, fighting for the freedom of her entire planet.

 

“Apparently they’d called for reinforcements, though, because the second the Galra came back we were defeated.  They doubled down on their campaign to enslave all of us. Anyone who fought was sent directly to the brothels and other institutions like this one.  They thought the most demeaning way to break our spirits was to take all the years of attuning our body to defeat the Galra and turning it into years of using our bodies to please them.”

 

Lance felt sick.  Sylvia’s eyes were unfocused, like she was being taken back to a place that Lance couldn’t see.  He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to see. This is why they fight the Galra. This is why… this is the reason that Keith was even here.  People like Sylvia were the reason Keith was letting himself be beaten down and taken advantage of.

 

Fondness bloomed in Lance’s chest, and he brought his hand up to tilt her chin so that she was looking at him with haunted eyes.  “You’re going to fight them again someday. You don’t spend the rest of your life here.”

 

A heavy breath forced its way out of her chest, and Lance pulled her back into the hug.

 

“What was your preferred weapon?”

 

They talked like that for the entire hour, Sylvia whispering about her past between drinks and giggles and hugs.  She was a lancer, and spent her teenage years learning hand-to-hand combat. 

 

“If it wasn’t for this stupid thing,” she tapped her thin collar with a sour expression, “I would have already taken out everyone here.”

 

Lance cocked his head curiously.  “This thing?”

 

“It can deliver a small electric shock.  If they ever see us acting out they can activate it until we stop.  The one time I tried to take out a client was… unpleasant to say the least.”

 

She shuddered, and for a moment Lance looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching them only to feel himself go cold all over.

 

His gaze was fixed.  Keith was sitting in the lap of a Dalmite.  He was being fondled, but his eyes were focused completely on Lance, expression unreadable.

 

They couldn’t communicate anything.  Their eyes were locked though, purple staring beseechingly into blue, and Lance wishes he could just cross the room and tell him everything.  He wanted to tell Keith that he was going to take him away from here, and that he was going to protect Keith from ever being touched like that again, and that Lance loved him and cherished him and respected him and…

 

...what Sylvia said earlier came back to him at that moment.  The line about patience.

 

That’s what Lance needed.  He needed to be patient, and some day soon they won’t be trapped here and Lance and Keith can curl up somewhere and talk without being timed or expectations being set.  They could just be there together.

 

“My time is up soon,” Sylvia muttered begrudgingly, and Lance sighed.

 

“Want to find me tomorrow?”

 

Everything in her expression told Lance that somehow he’d made a new friend.

 

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Keith and Lance continue their "courting" to coordinate their heist
> 
> If you like this, don't forget to drop a comment, kudos, share, or subscribe. I love working on fics but having feedback makes it so worth all of the long hours I put into these. Thank you all for coming on this journey with me!


	7. Sable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith attends to a new client and it tests his creativity. Then, Lance and Keith get some alone time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> This is where things start to kick up in speed, so expect the posting to be a little closer together and the chapters to be a little longer each time. I'm just cranking the material out at light speed at this point.
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. Forced sex work is always rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic WILL NOT excuse any of the actions taken by its characters, but will instead work to try to take down the organization from the inside.
> 
> Also, for anyone who has been waiting, this chapter has some smut of the extremely consensual variety, just to mix things up a bit

Keith walked into his client’s room with a curious eye.  Someone was waiting for him with a predatory gaze. It was a Dalmite woman, all curves and bright green eyes and luminescent skin.  She cocked her head to the side, lifting up her leg and letting her thin lingerie ride up.

 

“Are you the one I requested?” her voice was breathy, and Keith threw her a mischievous smile.

 

“I am, though I’m not sure why,” Keith’s voice was all teasing, strolling over to the bed and crawling towards her waiting figure.

 

Her toothy grin dropped as Keith crawled over her, completely caging her in.

 

“I saw you walking around the other day.  You are one of the most gorgeous creatures I’ve ever seen.”

 

Smirking, Keith dropped his mouth to her neck, breathing just under her ear and whispering, “what do you want me to do?”

 

Her pupils dilated, whispering breathily, “Fuck me like an animal.”

 

Whenever Keith got a request to perform with a woman, his go-to thought was to imagine that it was someone else.  Women were beautiful, and they could usually turn him on a little bit, but he just didn’t react the same to women as he did men.

 

As Keith closed his eyes, he saw someone else underneath him.

 

Bright blue eyes stared up at him, eyelids drooping.  His hands ran over the planes of Lance’s body, tight and dark and smooth as velvet.  He moaned wantonly at the warmth of the body underneath him.

 

Lance’s hands came up and brushed Keith’s face as another voice whispered, “has anyone ever told you that you’re stunning?”

 

Even if it wasn’t Lance’s voice, Keith felt those words hit him in the gut.  Lance pressed a wet kiss to Keith’s shoulder blade, mouthing at his collarbone.  The feeling made Keith’s skin sing.

 

“What kind of an animal do you want me to be?”

 

His hands traveled over the parts of Lance’s body that felt as they looked: the abdomen, the sides, the back.  Keith’s nails were digging into her skin and dragging along her arms as she whispered, “I don’t want to be able to walk tomorrow.”

 

The feeling had overtaken him, now: it was Lance under him, Lance asking Keith to fuck him like it was his dying breath, Lance’s skin burning underneath Keith.  

 

As Keith lifted Lance up to pound him against the headboard, bent over at an odd angle and bruising both their hips, Keith’s fingernails dragged along his back and pulled at his dark hair.  Keith had no problem performing when it was Lance underneath him, Lance’s tight ass that he was sinking his cock into. In this job he was so often being relegated to bottom, which normally he didn’t mind, but there was something about crowding over someone and making them scream.  There was something powerful about knowing that he was making that person feel this way, that he was in charge and that he was deciding where things were going.

 

He also made good on his promise.

 

As he growled and thrust and clawed and they both screeched like crazed hyenas, he felt like a fucking animal.

 

When he finished and laid on the sheets next to the woman, Keith had to open his eyes and let the illusion slip from his grasp.  Lance was gone, and it was like Keith was laying alone in the bed, and he stared at the ceiling, realizing something for the first time.

 

He needed to tell Lance.

  
  


***

  
  


Keith tapped his foot impatiently in the room designated for his courting period.  Sable had dropped by and said that she would be observing to ensure no funny business, but had winked at Keith and told him to have fun.

 

Words were burrowed in his lungs and he wanted to choke on them but instead he tried to breathe out heavily so that they would become dislodged.  Then, Keith could finally say what he’d meant to say this entire time…

 

...when Lance walked in, his whole body sagging at the sight of Keith and running over to him, Keith felt the words break free.

 

As he jumped into Lance’s arms and they fell backwards onto the bed, Keith whispered, “I want you, Lance.”

 

The words made Keith’s pupils dilate, and Lance himself flushed at the implication.

 

“You… want me to… what?”

 

Keith rolled them over so that he was caging Lance in, exactly like he’d been caging in his client from earlier.  His memory flashed to that suddenly, and Keith found himself lowering his mouth to just under Lance’s ear except this time it was really Lance.  

 

“I want to fuck you,” Keith whispered breathily while play biting at Lance’s ear.

 

The other man went rigid underneath him.  “I… wow, I… I want you too,” Lance looked sad though, which made Keith’s stomach sour, “but I’m okay with just laying here with you.”

 

Pouting, Keith cocked his head to the side, challenging Lance with his stare.  “Are you really going to turn me down for chivalry’s sake?”

 

At that, Lance shook his head vehemently.  “When you put it like that…”

 

Their mouths met in a flurry of movement.  Lance’s lips were soft and his tongue searched out Keith’s between them.  It was the deepest kiss that they’d had, and it made Keith’s head swim with endorphins and hormones.  

 

“I always thought this would be the other way,” Lance said honestly, starting to finger Keith’s shirt off.   “I’m more than okay with these conditions, but…”

 

Keith pressed a laughing kiss to Lance’s forehead.  “I figured it would be easier if we just skip that pregnancy concern altogether.  Plus, I never get to fuck anyone anymore. I’m being deprived.”

 

Lance shuddered at those words, arms tightening around Keith so that their chests were forced together.  His chest rumbled as Lance muttered, “Don’t let me stop you.”

 

They laughed against each other’s lips.  Lance’s hand came up and stroked through Keith’s hair then fit against his skull, holding him gently but also having so much power, too.  Keith didn’t feel this way about anyone else. He hadn’t even  _ thought  _ to  _ think  _ about anyone else this way.

 

“I just have to ask one more time,” Lance was staring up at Keith and his bright blue eyes were brimming with happiness, “I just want to make sure.”

 

Keith pulled back so that he was propped up on his knees over Lance, concerned.  “Are you okay with this?”

 

The two of them looked at each other pointedly for a few seconds.  Their discomfort quickly melted away as Lance’s hand found Keith’s and laced their fingers together.

 

“Okay.”

 

Keith dug around in the well-stocked nightstand drawer.  He pulled out a few condoms and lube, tossing them onto the blankets next to them.  Keith’s fingers started tugging at Lance’s shirt, and the two of them pulled it off together, eyes staying locked before Keith’s purple eyes were practically taken over by the pupil.  

 

“You’re gorgeous,” Keith purred happily, and he leaned down and bit playfully at a nipple, sucking at the skin around it.

 

“No, don’t get distracted,” Lance teased, fingers tilting Keith’s chin up to meet his mouth again.  Then his fingers slid down Keith’s chest, a feather-light touch until he managed to pull Keith’s shirt off as well.

 

The two of them were shirtless and panting when Lance started to smell it.  It was subtle and gentle, more a background scent than anything, but the cinnamon sugar gave Lance even more reassurance.  Keith wanted this. Keith felt safe right now. Keith… cared about Lance.

 

When Keith sniffed the air, he went rigid, but Lance just sat up onto his knees to start licking and biting at Keith’s neck in reassurance.  “I’m sorry, I can’t control that…”

 

“Don’t be sorry,” Lance shushed him, hands running over the planes of Keith’s back curiously.  “I love churros.”

 

Lance felt a smack on his chest, and he chuckled, grabbing at the hand that hit him and bringing it to his lips to kiss.

 

“Seriously.  It means that you trust me.”

 

Keith’s brow furrowed, and he sat back on his heels, hands tightening on Lance’s.

 

“You’re not going to leave again, are you?”

 

His words were small and quiet, and Lance felt it hit him like a sucker punch.  “I’m not going anywhere.”

 

A tiny whimper escaped Keith, seemingly without his permission, and Lance silenced him with a press of lips before pressing Keith back onto the bed.

 

When they tumbled to the mattress Lance’s hardness through his jeans pressed against Keith’s, and the two of them both moaned wantonly.  

 

It lit a fire underneath them.  Lance was quickly working to get Keith’s clothes off, and shed his own, straddling Keith on the bed and stunned at the gorgeous sight underneath him.

 

Keith was perfect.  His body was toned and his cock was curving slightly to the left, dripping.  Lance’s hands started mapping out the skin beneath him, squeezing at the taut muscles and massaging at Keith’s hips.  The man beneath him was squirming, and when Lance’s hand reached down to touch at his cock, Keith growled. 

 

In a move that would be giving Lance wet dreams for months if not years, Keith used his legs to flip their positions, sending Lance onto the bed forcefully with Keith hovering over him looking quite smug.

 

“Where did you learn that?” Lance asked breathlessly, feeling his body light up from the reverse of roles.

 

“Ninja school,” Keith teased, and Lance’s jaw dropped.

 

“Did you just make a joke?”

 

Keith pressed his finger against Lance’s lips and glared pointedly.  “Why don’t we not talk for a little while?”

 

Wrinkling his nose, Lance muttered, “We’ll have to keep my mouth busy, somehow.”

 

Snorting, Keith started tugging at Lance’s pants, and in almost no time Lance was naked and flushed underneath Keith, looking far too smug for being in such a compromising position.

 

Keith’s breath caught as Lance’s smile faltered for a second, and he saw through the false confidence and bravado and took in that Lance honestly looked nervous.  “Lance?”

 

Breathing shakily, his fingers came up to start tugging at the rest of Keith’s pants.  “It’s only fair if it’s both of us, baby.”

 

Right, and for no discernable reason Keith was… nervous?  He knew that Lance had seen him naked before, had seen someone else fucking him before, but this was different.  Lance said that he accepted Keith’s alien anatomy in theory, but would he be able to in practice? Was Keith opening himself up to hurt?

 

Everyone else who had seen him naked were only accessing his body.  Keith knew exactly what they wanted. Lance knew his  _ name _ , though.  Somehow that was more intimate than any amount of sex in this moment.  Lance feels some type of way about Keith, and Keith’s hands shook as he started stripping.

 

Lance stared at Keith appreciatively, half-hard and nervous above him, and caught his hands.

 

“Keith?  Hey,” Lance sat up and gathered Keith into his arms, so that their warmth was pooled between them, “You’re perfect.”

 

Emotion welled up in Keith, and he stuffed it back down, touching Lance’s shoulders and looking at him in the eye.

 

“Turn over,” Keith whispered, and Lance obeyed, sneakily kissing Keith’s fingers as he did so.  This way, Keith had the control. This way, Keith wasn’t exposed and terrified. It pacified him and soothed the nervous hum that had built up in his chest.

 

Keith gently propped Lance’s hips up with two pillows, and Lance moaned as they jostled his cock unceremoniously.  Then Keith took a moment to run his hands over the strong, muscular planes of Lance’s back. He didn’t realize that a back could be so attractive to him, but the way that his tight muscles rippled under smooth, dark skin was enticing in an entirely new way to Keith.  As he popped open the lube and coated his fingers, he pressed open-mouthed kisses on Lance’s lower back in an attempt to show Lance how much he loved his body right now.

 

Lance tensed and bit at the pillow closest to him in an attempt not to talk, but Keith laughed.  “I want to hear you, Lance.”

 

“Your mouth is magic,” Lance whimpered, and Keith grinned against his skin. 

 

“If you like my mouth,” Keith teased, starting to tease at the cleft of Lance’s ass towards his fluttering hole, “You should meet my fingers.”

 

Lance choked on his words as Keith breached him gently, scissoring and pulling at the muscles to start to make room.

 

“You’re right, I’m an idiot,” was all Lance could saw before he whimpered and bucked, trying to control himself as Keith opened him up.

 

At Lance’s keens and whines, Keith felt himself starting to get excited again.  The images he had in his mind from earlier, of Lance spread below him while he pounded into him came back with a vengeance.  Knowing that he was seconds away from that reality only spurred Keith to add another finger, pressing kisses to his lower back again when he gasped in pleasure pain.

 

Soon Keith’s fingers were practically getting sucked into Lance, and Keith retracted his fingers slowly, the squelching sound only testing his patience.  Keith grabbed for the condom and slid it on, hovering over Lance for a moment.

 

His hardness started pressing on Lance’s cheeks, and Keith pulled them apart as he sunk in inch by glorious inch.

 

There was a choking sound underneath him as he moved further and further into Lance’s slick hole.  Keith’s hands started sliding up Lance’s side, rubbing the slick lube along his skin lewdly. Lance shivered at the contact, lost to the sensation of being dominated in this way.  When Keith sank all the way in, his hands came under Lance’s underarms and wrapped around to his shoulder to provide more leverage.

 

When he sank all the way in, Keith was shaking with the intensity of the feeling of being joined this way.  They’d talked about it a little bit, and… and now that it was happening Keith wasn’t sure it was real. He was worried that if he pushed too hard this delicate bubble of intimacy would just… pop.

 

“Keith, you feel amazing inside of me,” Lance’s words were rushed and slurred with pleasure.  If Keith wasn’t mistaken, Lance was drooling onto the pillow beneath him.

 

The words helped to ground Keith in reality as he shifted to get leverage to pull out a little bit.  They both gasped at the sharp tug on their connection, and Keith brought his knees in closer in order to thrust with more power.

 

The first time Keith did this Lance actually cried out, and Keith froze up.

 

“Are you alright?” Keith ran his hand soothingly down his arm, but Lance said at the same time, “Don’t stop, damnit!”

 

Smiling, Keith did it again.  Their bodies were heating up quickly, and Keith’s smell morphed into something comforting.  Underneath the cinnamon sugar was a gentle vanilla. As his cock pressed in and out of Lance, Keith felt his body start to tighten up and light up with pleasure.  He felt it from his toes to top of his head. He rested his forehead against Lance’s lower back as he continued to thrust harshly, and soon Lance was whispering words that Keith couldn’t understand, because he was muttering.. or was it…?

 

It was Spanish.

 

Lance was freaking out in Spanish and Keith felt his breath shorten and skin catch fire.  Then Lance switched to English for only a few words, which made Keith stutter to a stop for a moment.

 

“What?”

 

“Your fingers… my mouth…” Lance descended into frantic Spanish again but Keith got the message, bringing his left hand to brush against Lance’s spit-slicked lips, slipping into the tight cavern with a moan.

 

That was definitely what Lance had wanted, because he started sucking on the fingers with vigor, moaning around the digits and running his tongue between them.  It was lewd and odd and so unmistakably hot that Keith didn’t last for much longer.

  
  


He felt himself come and buried his face into Lance’s lower back to muffle his cry.  Lance tightened around him at the feeling, but Keith could feel that he hadn’t come yet.

 

As Keith struggled down from his high he pulled out and slipped his fingers back inside Lance, making him whimper again.

 

Keith’s heavy panting was eclipsed by Lance’s quick and high-pitched whines.  “Keith, I need you to touch me.”

 

Understanding, Keith flipped Lance over and pinned him against the bed, fingers still buried firmly inside of Lance as his other hand started running slickly over Lance’s member.

 

Keith grabbed more lube again so that the slide was effortless and almost disgustingly wet.  Lance didn’t seem to mind, based on how his body was twitching and arching with each touch.

 

In no time Lance was coming next, and Keith stroked him through it then planted a kiss on his abdomen.

 

“Shhh, easy, it’s okay,” Keith’s voice was hoarse and reassuring as they both caught their breath.

 

Keith quickly disposed of the condom and tapped on Lance’s shoulder.

 

“We should clean up,” Keith said quietly, and Lance nodded even though he was only half there.

 

As Lance stood up, Keith caught him as his legs collapsed underneath him.  Lance laughed at his own clumsiness.

 

“You fucked me good then, huh?  I probably won’t be able to sit down for days,” Lance’s voice was still husky as they made it to the bathroom and Keith turned on the shower.  They both hobbled into it, Lance’s arms around Keith’s neck and leaning on him for balance and strength. 

 

This was something that was also new to Keith.  Normally he wasn’t allowed to clean after entertaining someone, but with Lance they don’t want physical proof.  Seeing them do the deed was enough proof for them. There was something private about Lance’s body against his as the hot water spilled down their backs.  Lance’s hair fell in dark clumps around his face and neck, and Keith brushed it back to meet Lance’s eyes.

 

This was it.  This was one of those moments, one of only a select few in someone’s lifetime.  Keith had an opportunity, and so did Lance, and as they stared at each other, wet and sore and shaking, the silence pooled until it was too much to bear.

 

So, in the heavy silence Keith cleaned Lance and himself off, massaging a strawberry-smelling shampoo into their hair, and rinsed it out.

 

Their movements were a little awkward but mostly gentle, and when Keith turned off the water Lance chanced standing on his own and only wobbled a little bit.

 

When that space was created between them, Keith felt himself draw towards Lance like a magnet to brush his hand down Lance’s chest.

 

“Someone was telling me something the other day,” Lance found himself saying.  He was running his fingers through Keith’s dripping hair, the dark black in stark contrast to his porcelain skin.

 

“Hmm?”

 

A small smile graced Lance’s lips, and he looked sad suddenly, like he’d lost something.  Keith felt his stomach drop. He was still right here! Keith hadn’t gone anywhere! Why did Lance look like that!?

 

“It was a lesson about patience and timing,” Lance’s words were punctuated with something that made Keith’s stomach clench.  “Sometimes if you want something so badly, you need to learn to wait until the right time. Sometimes it isn’t the right time.  Sometimes there’s something bigger going on, and our wants and needs come second to something more important.”

 

It reminded Keith of their vows as paladins to put the needs of the universe over their own needs.  It reminded Keith that he had given all of himself sliver by chunk by piece to others. It reminded him that he wasn’t sure whether or not he even had anything leftover to give anymore.

 

Then Keith understood the sadness in Lance’s eyes.  Then Keith backed a step away, and the words “I love you,” were swallowed down and silenced under the recognition of a bigger mission than just the two of them.

 

As they both dressed to leave, the two of them kept looking at each other, hoping that the other had decided to screw their mission and their vows and run away.

 

Neither of them did, though.

 

They left in silence.  When Lance got back to his room, he fell onto his bed and screamed.

 

The two of them had a string pulled tight between them, tugging cruelly against their hearts as they remembered that no human emotion was worth more than hundreds of lives.  Quite a few unfriendly words could be said in reference to Keith and Lance, but selfishness was not one of them.

 

So their selfless asses collapsed a whole casino apart, aching emptiness echoing in the silence.

  
  


***

  
  


When the two boys left their courting room, Sable smiled happily, downloading the footage onto a small drive and walking purposefully towards the Grande Ambassador’s office.  The small handler was completely smitten with the match. If she didn’t know any better she would say that they were made for each other.

 

The tiny Dalmite woman had been born into a military family that traveled the planets they’d quietly acquired with Galran help.  Her mother told her from an early age that the Dalmites were a people built upon the idea that you should live your life fast and hard, and seek out all the pleasures in the world because any minute your life could end.  

 

An asteroid could hit the planet and wipe them all out.  There could be an alien virus that was spreading quietly through the masses of people in the casino.  Rebels could take down a stronghold, or you could have a heart attack. 

 

She was taught that each moment was precious, and shouldn’t be wasted.

 

Somehow this Dalmite belief had been twisted into these pleasure houses, but Sable didn’t see it as twisted.  She loved that she helped to give happiness and satisfaction to those who needed it. To her, the greatest fulfillment was knowing that she brought something beautiful to those who visited their casino.  

 

Usually she didn’t have a problem distancing herself from her escorts, but Lethyr… Lethyr had snuck up on her.

 

From the moment he got here Sable’s sharp eyes picked him out of the crowd.  She saw a rising star in his sharp features and gorgeous eyes, and soon his prickly but playful personality snagged her, and she had made it her mission to make Lethyr happy.

 

The boy was a natural escort.  He took to the flirting and the faking and even the drugging without a hitch.  He was professional, sexy, and well liked. He rose through the ranks to become one of their top attractions in the few weeks he’d been there.

 

So when Sable was given the opportunity to send Lethyr off to a happily ever after, she jumped on the idea immediately.

 

She wasn’t sure what it was about Lethyr’s eyes, or maybe the way he spoke or how he saw her as an equal and not as some jailor or warden, but Sable wanted nothing more than to help Lethyr run off with his Voltron paladin.

 

She brushed back one of her braids as she entered the main casino floor, sharp yellow eyes zeroing in on Selma.  She adjusted her outfit and fixed her clipboard, walking over with purpose. She’d learned that there was a way to walk through a pleasure floor, and it was to find someone to stare at and not take your eyes off of them.  Even with what you heard or might catch in the corner of your eyes, you weren’t supposed to look around you. It was an unspoken rule, one drilled into her head from a young age.

 

When she reached Selma, seated on a high chair watching all the sexual acts going on around her silently.

 

“Where is he?” Sable asked politely, and Selma rolled her eyes.

 

“The cupid act needs to drop, Sable.   When are you going to learn?” the words were harsh and biting, but that was what Sable liked about Selma.  The escort had been around for a while, and was one of the Grande Ambassador’s favorites. Around him she was a perfect angel, but with everyone else she was stone cold.

 

Compared to some of the other cloak and dagger secrets around here, Selma’s abrasiveness was refreshing.

 

“Please?” Sable prodded, and Selma pointed towards the back rooms with her thumb.  

 

“He went to go discuss a contract being drawn up.  I wouldn’t disturb him.”

 

The handler pouted.  “That’s alright, I’ll just drop this file in his office and get going.”

 

She hurried to the back, thinking through everything else she needed to do that day.  She needed to submit a swab from Lethyr when she saw him, and needed to set up an appointment with one of her other escorts for a medical physical.

 

When she knocked on the Grande Ambassador’s back office door, it swung open.  There was a small group of Galran soldiers in there with the loud, boasting man.  All of them had drinks in their hands, and the Ambassador himself was smiling with rosy alcohol-stained cheeks.

 

“Sable darling!  Come in, come in!  Tell me all about how Lethyr is doing with Lance.”

 

Smiling and squaring herself up, she handed the file over to him to plug into his computer.  He did a cursory glance through the series of clips and smiled widely. 

 

“Perfect!  What’s the next stage of the plan?”   
  


“Well, with your permission I’d like to draw up the contract with the paladin.  They seem to really like each other, and Lance is an honorable man and a hero of the universe.  I’m sure the monetary amount for Lethyr is pennies to a man like him.”

 

A still silence fell over the group, which made Sable tense, fingernails digging into her palms.  

 

Then the silence cracked harshly as the men around her started laughing.

 

She was missing something.  The duplicity of her fellow Dalmites always surprised her no matter how many times she was double crossed.

 

“What’s so funny, sir?”

 

The Grande Ambassador was a larger man with eyes such a strange color she couldn’t even name it.  There wasn’t a word in their native language, and she was sure that this is one of the reasons he’d become so powerful.  If people can’t put a name on something, they fear it. Fear builds power, and power builds empires out of stolen planets like Phoem.

 

“I have a question for you, Sable,” he grinned toothily and brought out two coins.  “I have only one coin to my name. I can either buy everything I need with the gold coin, or take a chance and bet on the races.  Now, the animal I’m betting on in the races is a sure thing to win. If I invest my money in that creature, then I can get hundreds of gold coins.”   
  


One of his hands ducked into his drawer and drew out a change purse.  He dumped the contents onto the desk over the coin to the left, and tossed the one on the right to her.  She caught it deftly, understanding starting to draw her heart heavily to earth.

 

Gold coins were scarce anymore on this planet that dealt in mostly the currency of bodies and other worldly delights.  Sable wasn’t even sure when the last time she saw a gold coin like this was. She could probably buy her entire hometown with the tiny coin that he so easily threw away.

 

“What sounds like the smart business move, Sable?”

 

All of her grand delusions of wedding bells and actually letting one of her escorts get a “happily ever after” suddenly died in a crashing cacophony of brass instruments, then she just stood there, numb.

 

“We’re making the arrangements now to secure Lance into our service permanently.  We’ll be using his weakness with Lethyr to trap him here. Once a collar is on him, no one can move him or he’ll die.  Not even Voltron can fix that.”

 

The Galrans were watching her like they knew something that she didn’t.  She didn’t enjoy being made fun of like this.

 

“You’re right, sir,” she bit out, smiling falsely.  “What would you like me to do?”

  
  


***

  
  


Keith heard a loud bang in his entryway later that night.  He had been moping about timing and his feelings for Lance, but the loud noise brought back his fighting reflexes.  He moved to the door and cautiously opened it, looking out into the room.

 

It was dark, which was odd.  The light in there was almost never off.  It had annoyed the hell out of Keith when he first arrived, because the light in this room would bleed in a ribbon into his own.

 

He felt around for the switch and slipped in something.  Angry at Sable for probably spilling his protein shake again, once the light was on the complaint died in his throat.

 

It wasn’t protein shake.  He was extremely light headed and confused for a moment, seeing the viscous purple substance spiderweb out in the tiny cracks of the tile.  Two yellow eyes were staring up at him in panic, and there was a gurgling sound that Keith realized was hot purple… blood… dripping from her shoulder quickly.

 

Sable was clutching her shoulder tightly, trying to stop the bleeding, but Keith could see the blue color start to seep from her and turn her a pale, ashy color. 

 

“Le- Leth-” she coughed as she tried to get the name out.  Keith was frozen. Here sat a woman who’d sent him into the lion’s den, quite literally, hundreds of times in the last few weeks.  She was the one that massages his back when it was blooming with bruises, and snapped at him to suck it up when he complained about his outfits.

 

Without realizing what was happening, Keith kneeled over her and brought her head into his lap, running his fingers through her blood-sticky hair.  It was the first time he’d seen her hair down, and the dark locks fell in strong, beautiful waves that clumped at the ends from laying in the purple.

 

“Who did this?” Keith’s voice broke, and she coughed again, starting to shiver.

 

Keith knew this stage.  Her body temperature was dropping as she lost more blood.  Soon she would go into shock. Then, she would… as long as her anatomy was similar enough to humans.  Keith found that one of the unifying points in every species was death.

 

“He… let him go,” she struggled, screaming suddenly in Keith’s hands before going still.

 

“Sable?” 

 

No response.

 

“Sable?”

 

Silence.  There was a dripping sound from her hair that he had bunched in his hand, and Keith thought about how strange it sounded when the rest of the room was buzzing with quiet.

 

There was a knock on his door suddenly, and he couldn’t move from where he was.  He didn’t want to put her head back on the dirty floor, but… he guessed it didn’t matter but…

 

The door opened anyway.  One of the other handlers handed him a short piece of paper, completely nonplussed by the dead body weeping beneath her.

 

They left without saying anything, and Keith opened the paper.

 

Written in Galran script was the following:

 

_ Courting period has been denied.  Escort will report back to regular work in the morning. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Keith's entire operation is threatened as the time ticks nearer to the summit
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! I have an Adashi from after season 7 that I posted (major angst warning though), some other Klance fics, and a few Shidge fics. I try to keep my Voltron porn varied and interesting like that
> 
> If you like what you see, let me know with a kudos or comment! Subscribe if you want to hop on this wild ride with us. I'll be grateful for the company<3


	8. Borak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tries to carry out the plan without Keith. Later, the Grande Ambassador shows Keith what his future could look like if he misbehaves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my loves<333
> 
> The comments on the last chapter were all so sweet, especially the ones that felt bad for Sable. I'm glad that I made a character worthy of your mourning. It is a very high compliment and I'm flattered :D
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with sex trafficking and sex slaves. This fic portrays numerous scenes of noncon and dubcon and deals with many consent issues. This fic DOES NOT IN ANY WAY excuse the actions taken by the villains, and in fact the characters will work to dissemble the organization at fault.
> 
> I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Lance yawned in the morning.  He went to type out a message on his communicator to Allura and Shiro, but after ruffling through his pile of laundry he couldn’t find the damn thing.  Sighing at his inability to keep track of anything, Lance cracked his back and headed out to grab some breakfast.

 

Unknowingly, a tiny note fluttered under his bed when he jumped on it to put his shoes on.  He didn’t notice the delicate thing, or the message on it. 

 

Instead he laced his sneakers and thought giddily about last night.  Keith and him had connected on some deeper level. Something had changed between them, and Lance felt his stomach clench happily.

 

As he practically skipped out of the room, the note was pushed farther underneath the bed, to collect with old socks and garbage that had collected there over the course of many years of use.

 

It sat there, still and collected with a hodgepodge of other missing items, message unreceived.  

  
  


***

  
  


Keith was collected by another handler.  He didn’t know this one’s name.

 

He hoped that he wouldn’t find out.

 

They guided him up to the Grande Ambassador’s private chambers.  His hands and lap were still sticky with purple blood. The odd color looked like paint splotches on his body, and for a second he wondered if he looked like a crazed art student.

 

He wanted to tell Lance and ask what he thought, but he was alone now.

 

The handler locked him in, standing in his comfortable sleeping clothes in the middle of the room, purple blood tracking on the carpets.

 

“Oh, Lethyr!” a booming voice came from the parlor, and he shakily bypassed the bed towards the Ambassador’s hosting room.  There were a few Galrans with him and one other Dalmite, who was watching the proceedings with thinly veiled discomfort.

 

“Gentlemen, this is Lethyr.  He is only of my absolute favorites here.  He’ll show us a good time, right dear?”

 

A good time?

 

Keith blinked a few times, looking at the men sitting around in a circle.  Some of them were only half dressed, and Keith realized that there was another escort in the corner with a Galran.

 

“He can’t entertain any of you directly,” the Ambassador chuckled hardily, pulling Keith’s blood-sticky hands and settling him in his lap, “but I wouldn’t be opposed if you all wanted to help get him in the mood.”

 

Oh.   _ Oh. _

 

His clothes were ripped off as a sickening combination of smells assaulted his nose.  His body got unbearably hot, aching and desperate in moments. 

 

His mind disappeared between the cracks.  Except... the smells were coming from so many different bodies.  He was confused. Should he just let them all take their turn fucking him?  Except... he felt a possessive hand wrap around his chest.

 

“You’re mine tonight, darling.  We’re doing a private show.”

 

Normally his handler would prep him.  He always knew what he was walking into.  She would give him tips and background information on the client.  She would talk to him when he got back, discussing the hard details that Keith could grasp so that he wouldn’t have to focus on the cloudy emotions.

 

Sable was dead in his entryway, now.  They hadn’t moved her body. No one had even bothered to show up and check on Keith.  No one seemed upset that she was gone.

 

She just… fell through the cracks.

 

His thoughts about his handler disappeared as the Ambassador started stroking him and playing with him.  His need to be touched was being fulfilled by his wide hands and probing lips. Keith was dissolving, but something kept him grounded, even as his body hummed pleasantly with the feeling of being filled by a large, familiar cock.  As the Galrans around them jacked off to the sight of him being fucked, and as one of them grabbed hard enough on the other escort’s hips to draw angry red marks, Keith focused on one thing.

 

There was still blood on his hands.

 

However, by time they were through with him, there was blood on the Ambassador’s hands, too, and Keith found it in himself to appreciate the symbolism as he was carried towards the large bed.

 

“I could never let you go, lovely,” his heavy breath ghosted into Keith’s ear and made him shiver involuntarily.  

 

At some point one of his advisors came in with a needle and gave it to the Ambassador quietly.  He left Keith’s side for the first time in the last two hours to stick the needle into his thigh and inject the drug.

 

Simple pleasures, they call it.  Sex and drugs and booze and money.

 

It’s blood money, now.

 

As he rode out his high holding tightly to Keith, the young man found himself drifting.  He couldn’t remember what he had been doing before this. Something about a ledger, right?  That mission was tomorrow? Lance and him needed to meet once more, but… there wouldn’t be another meeting.

 

For the first time since Lance got here, Keith felt trapped.

 

It would be fitting of Keith, the overcommitted and detail-oriented agent, to be so good undercover that he would be trapped in that life indefinitely.

  
  


***

  
  


Snicker’s job was a simple one.

 

He was quick and small.  He brought nutrient slurries all around the casino.  It was a very, very important job. If he didn’t bring the pouches around, people might sit in drugged-out hazes for days without taking anything in.

 

He was quiet.  Sometimes the people wouldn’t even know he was there before he was handing them their pouch or sticking them with a needle to inject the nutrients directly into their body.

 

His assignment was to deliver two pouches to the Big Man’s room.  The Big Man ran the casino, and decided everything around here. He was loud and powerful, and Snicker always was careful to be respectful whenever the Big Man was around.

 

So when he got to the room, he knocked carefully before darting inside.  There were two people who were sweaty and knocked out in the bed, and Snicker ran up and tapped them both awake.  

 

When the dark haired man turned over, Snicker saw with a start that it was Mr. Lele.  His eyes widened as his friend noticed him. A terrified look took over his features, and he brought a finger to his lips to show Snicker that he wasn’t allowed to talk about Mr. Lele being there.

 

Snicker understood and handed him the pouch without needing further instructions.

 

When he came around to the Big Man’s side, he frowned and tried to poke the Big Man awake again, but he wouldn’t budge.

 

In the end, Snicker stuck him and hung the nutrient slushy from the bedpost.  At least, this way, the Big Man wouldn’t die of malnutrition.

 

Then, as quietly as he came in, Snicker left.

  
  


***

  
  


Lance was tapping his foot incessantly, his nerves frayed beyond belief.  

 

He’d been to every social hour that day and hadn’t seen Keith or his handler once.  In fact, Lance hadn’t seen anyone that he recognized to ask questions to. He knew that he had to pull off the heist that night based off of his and Keith’s planning, but… Keith said that he would be there to give him the go-ahead.  Keith needed to be there to help him hide the ledger afterword.

 

Finally, someone came over to him looking happy.  It wasn’t an escort, he realized with a start. It was one of the Dalmite patrons, a woman with neon blue hair and a sharp grin.  

 

“You’re a tasty morsel,” she cooed at him, and Lance stood up and ignored her.

 

Her words were sharp as she retaliated at being ignored.

 

“Hey, don’t leave when you’re ordered by a master!  Come back, whore!”

 

The words slid like ice cubes down Lance’s back, and he froze.  This is what Keith feels like all the time. Berated, called out… turned into nothing but an object for their pleasure, a short happiness to fill emptiness that they couldn’t seem to quell with anything else.

 

“I’m not owned here.  I’m a customer, like you,” he pulled his gold card out of his pocket, feeling prickly towards the way he was being treated.  His blue eyes sparkled with anger. Normally he didn’t like to play the “I’m tougher than you” card, but he had been knocked off his game by not seeing Keith and by being objectified.

 

Snickering, she walked up towards him.  She only had four fingers on each hand, which had Lance wondering why.  

 

He started stumbling backwards before he turned around and walked briskly towards the back rooms to lay down the bait.  A very clinical looking secretary and gruff security guard were standing at the entrance to the back rooms.

 

“Hello, may I have your card?” the secretary twittered, a tiny and bony creature with four arms.

 

Lance handed it over and she scanned it, reading his information.

 

“Alright, I see here that you’ve been pretty singular about your escort selection.  Did you want to vary your experience by coming over here?”

 

Gulping, Lance remembered the way Keith had coached him in their quiet time together, curled up in the sheets.

 

“I’m looking for something… different.”

 

Her bright eyes blinked up at Lance with enthusiasm.  “Would you like to take a look at our menu? The selection isn’t limited to that list, but it can be a good starting point for certain customers.”

 

Keith didn’t prepare him for this.  “No… no, I think I’m okay. I know what I want.”

 

Smiling, she handed a brochure to him.  “Perfect! I’m going to give you the menu anyway, and tell an associate backstage that you would like a consultation.”

 

Swallowing, Lance nodded, following the hallway behind her to a small, clean waiting room.  There were magazines and everything, and Lance was completely thrown for a loop.

 

Except… yes, upon further inspection, he saw that they were all fetish porn magazines.  Lance didn’t even know that space had magazines until this very moment.

 

He felt dirty just being near them.

 

Eventually someone called his name and he was lead into a small office.  It wasn’t the room where contracts were signed, of course. Keith warned Lance that he would need to discuss terms and give them time to write the contract up.  The heist wouldn’t be officially starting until tomorrow, making it only two days from the summit as opposed to three.

 

As he sat down in the office, he wondered if Keith would magically appear tomorrow.  His concern was quickly set aside when an older Dalmite gentleman with an eyeglass perched on his nose looked at him with a calm patience.

 

“Alright, I’ve been told that you’d like to explore some more… unusual pursuits.  Have you had a chance to glance at our menu?”

 

Shuddering, Lance put the menu down and smiled at the Dalmite.  Keith had reassured him that he was allowed a little embarrassment.  Most people were a little nervous when talking about their deep dark kinks.

 

“I’m good, actually.  I know what I want. I’ve been told that there are…” Lance swallowed, asking every deity in existence to give him strength, “...certain creatures with, um, certain types of appendages…” he stuttered off, beat red.

 

“Ah, you’re looking for one of our tentacle packages, then?”

 

Lance felt like the world caved in.  Laughing and giggling with Keith about how he picked tentacle porn was hilarious in theory, but in practice proved to be absolutely mortifying.  

 

He nodded dejectedly.

 

“Don’t be embarrassed!  I will say that all of our fetish packages are an extra charge, billed to you when you leave.  Is that suitable for you?”

 

Seeing as he would never actually use the package, he didn’t see a problem with that.  “Yes, that’s fine.”

 

The Dalmite typed a few notes into his tablet.  “Alright, so what kind of tentacle experience are you looking for?  Would you like to penetrate, or be penetrated?”

 

Twitching imperceptibly, Lance squeaked, “Penetrated.”

 

He tried to summon his strength to keep a straight face and not freak out, but talking about this was making him squirm.

 

“Are you looking for a tentacle experience that implants eggs in you?  Or secretes an aphrodisiac? Both of these are options,” his voice was casual and excited, like he was trying to sell Lance features on a sports car.

 

He practiced this, though.  “I want the aphrodisiac, not the eggs.”

 

Somehow he managed to say all of that without losing his cool.

 

The Dalmite was scrolling through a series of pictures on a screen.  “Do you have a color preference?”   
  


“Blue,” he said automatically, because if he’d coming up with a fake tentacle creature to fuck him, why not choose his favorite color?  

 

“Okay, we have three escorts that would fit that bill.  I’ll show them to you, and you can select your top choice.  Then I’ll type up the contract. You can stop by our documentation room tomorrow night to review the contract, sign, and then book your appointment.”

 

Taking a deep breath, Lance smiled weakly.  

 

“I think that when people admit what the secretly want in their hearts, it opens up a whole new world of exploration for them,” the Dalmite’s eyes twinkled as the stared at Lance knowingly, “I’m very excited for you to learn more about yourself through this experience.”

 

Trying his best not to panic and flee, Lance smiled.  “I’m excited, too.”

 

When he left the hallway, he felt dirty, and went directly for his rooms.

 

He missed the note, again.  It was brushed slightly to the right by him throwing his covers to the ground to fish out his pajamas.

  
  


***

  
  


While Lance was busy creating his made-to-order tentacle extravaganza, Keith was staring at the ceiling in the Ambassador’s room.

 

He’d finally fallen asleep again after another shot of drugs, but Keith was too afraid to move.  In all the time he’d been here the danger had only been to his mind, and he couldn’t see it or feel it so it didn’t freak him out as much.

 

It was only a few hours ago that Keith was allowed to wash the blood off his body.

 

Without warning, though, he was being prodded, and he almost jumped ten feet in the air when it was Snicker again, his green spots flashing prettily in the dim lighting.

 

“Mr. Lele?” his voice was almost silent.  Keith weighed his options very carefully in that moment, as Snicker handed him a nutrition pouch.

 

He held a finger to his lips and nodded towards the parlor.  Snicker was silent as he followed Keith, silent enough that Keith wasn’t even sure the kid was following him until he closed the door behind him.

 

When Snicker looked up at Keith with watery eyes, he asked, “How come the Big Man has kept you trapped up here?”

 

Sighing, Keith tried to figure out the best way to handle this.  He only had a few viable options that didn’t put Snicker in danger, but he also knew that there was a very good chance that he wouldn’t be leaving the Grande Ambassador’s rooms for a while, even potentially until or including the summit.

 

He needed to be at that fucking summit, so as he looked down at the tiny, excitable boy beneath him, he kneeled down.

 

“Hey, I’m just keeping him company for a while,” Keith knew that he had dead eyes, and his fingers were shaking, but luckily many children had an unwavering faith that adults were always alright.  “However, I have a very important job for you.”

 

Snicker’s eyes widened, and he stood at attention, straightening up and saluting Keith with a very serious face.  

 

For a moment, Keith wanted to turn back and tell Snicker to leave.  He didn’t want to saddle a kid with this responsibility, but he also knew how many lives were at stake.

 

When Snicker snuck back out, Keith settled back into the bed, weighed down with worry.

  
  


***

  
  


They finally went out into the world the next morning.

 

It was the morning of the heist.  Lance was scheduled to review his contract tonight before social hour.  He would use the fanfare of social hour to get the ledger safely to Keith, who was planning on hiding it under his own mattress until…

 

...well, at least that was the plan.

 

“I’m going to show you off, pet.  I brought you something,” the Grande Ambassador pulled out a leash, plugging it into Keith’s collar so that he looked like a dog.  Keith felt himself wilting at the knock to his pride, but knew that he needed to keep his cool.

 

He was dressed in nothing but a pair of gold booty shorts and the gold chain attached to his collar.  Keith walked next to him as he strolled around the early evening social hour, Keith in tow. Everytime Keith fell too far behind the leash was tugged and Keith had to trip over himself to catch up.

 

They got to the front of the room where his throne was and they ascended.  Keith was instructed to sit at his master’s feet, and he did so without complaint.

 

He knew that there were people watching him.  He could see people he knew in the crowd. Old clients watched with jealousy.  Fellow escorts watched with both horror and relief at Keith’s new position beneath their captor.  

 

It wasn’t until he caught Lance’s eye that he faltered.

 

It was just a brief blink of time that he felt sadness before he clamped it down, hard.  Lance was sitting with the same girl he had been spending time with for a few days, and as she whispered something in his ear his eyes were fixed on the leash connecting Keith and the Grand Ambassador.

 

They were supposed to have their last supervised courting period today.  They were supposed to go over the plan and work out any bugs. They were supposed to get a chance to hold each other and reassure each other that this was going to work, and that they were going to be okay.

 

Instead they got longing looks across the casino floor as Lance seemed to accept that he was on his own.

 

One of the handlers came up to the Ambassador suddenly, saying that there was an urgent matter.  

 

“One of your friends is insisting that you two would be sharing a drink this social hour,” her tone was a little disbelieving, but the Dalmite just smiled.

 

“I keep my promises,” he announced suddenly, and Keith had to fight the urge to scoff.

 

They descended into a small circle of unoccupied couches.  Keith was no longer at his feet, but was pulled into the Grande Ambassador’s lap hungrily, like he was a fancy jewel to show off.

 

Keith’s stomach fell out as another pair of people came over to their tiny area, sitting across from them.

 

It was a Galran soldier, some high ranking something based off the quality of his armor and the number of marks on his breastplate.  He was tall, even for Galra, with wide shoulders and a furry, wide-set face. 

 

Sitting on his lap without hesitating was… a ghost.

 

Or what looked like a ghost.  It was a man, Keith thinks, but someone who had been hollowed out over time.  The man leaned back possessively against the soldier’s chest, hand playing with his ears playfully, almost like he didn’t know any better.

 

“Well, Zenaz, it seems that our arrangement has made you quite a lucky man.”

 

Zenaz chuckled, hand coming down to brush across his escort’s face gently.  “I’ve gotten two children from him so far, both of them strong. This has been a worthy investment on my part.”

 

The puzzle pieces clicked together in a sudden horror as the Ambassador cleared his throat.  “How rude of me! Lethyr, this is Zenaz. He purchased Borak from us only a few years ago. You found him to be a worthy mate, right?”

 

Keith stared at the jagged scar on Borak’s neck, almost a perfect indentation of teeth marks just above his collarbone, and wanted to puke.

 

“They’re bonded,” Keith deadpanned, and the hands around him patted him as if to tell him that he did a good job.

 

“This is my bonded mate.  Borak, say hello,” Zenaz brushed the hair out of Borak’s face, who looked at the other two with a hollow grin.

 

“Hello.”

 

The word fell flat onto the floor.  He could almost hear the gleeful laughter from the Dalmite holding him.  

 

Keith knew what a show of power was.  It was to tell the person who thinks they might have the upper hand who is really pulling the strings.  He knew who sent Sable to die in his entryway, whether she was dying already or stabbed in front of his room.  He knew that this could be his future, if the Grande Ambassador so desired it.

 

He was telling Keith that Keith was helpless.

 

To his credit, it was working.

 

“Borak,” Keith’s voice tried to stay firm, “how do you like your new life?”

 

The other half-Galran looked up at his mate, seemingly lost.  “How do I like it, master?”

 

“He’s treated like a prince with me.  He eats the finest foods and wears the most expensive clothes, and he gets pampered by me almost daily.  He warms my bed at night, and based off how much he loves being stuffed full of my come, I’d say he enjoys it.”

 

Borak looked back to Keith, eyes empty like a doll’s.  “I enjoy it.”

 

Fear was pinpricks on the back of Keith’s neck.  Fear made the collar on his neck burn white hot like a searing iron because he knew what he was being told right now.

 

He was being told that at any moment Keith could be turned into some Galran soldier’s bitch if he misbehaves.  He was being told that he needed to start complying, and that he needed to stop seeing Lance if he wanted to keep his own sanity and autonomy.

 

No words were needed from behind him, just the image in front of him and the feeling of hands bruising his left hip.

 

Keith felt the world starting to turn to something distant, like he was watching all around him in a VR headset instead of actually sitting there.  He tried to imagine for a moment the feeling he had when he was overcome with that mating scent, and tried to imagine being stuck like that for the rest of his life, and he had never been so afraid in his life.

 

He just had three more days.  He just had to make it three more days.

 

Then the Blades would come for him.

 

Then he would be safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes. What does the note under Lance's bed say? Will Keith be able to get out from under the Dalmites? Will Lance's plan work without Keith there to back him up? What did Keith tell Snicker? Will Lance's fake tentacle fetish become real? Will the universe become a friendlier, more beautiful place? Find out next time!!!
> 
> *note: no kink shaming in the comments please and thank you*
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! I have one about Adashi and mourning [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15694383) and I have another Klance series [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1047074). Also, I have a fun Shidge fic that is completed and ready for your reading pleasure. You don't have to like the ship to enjoy Pidge being badass [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484139/chapters/30918801)


	9. Emmett

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance goes into his contract negotiations to retrieve the ledger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello loves<3
> 
> All of your comments continue to be incredible and make me so happy! 
> 
> WARNING: this fic contains topics such as sex trafficking and sex slaves. Due to the nature of the content, be prepared to deal with potential consent issues and also dark themes. If this fic makes you feel some type of way, reach out to a loved one or professional.
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

When Sylvia came over to him at the social hour before he was supposed to pull off the heist, he was keyed up with nerves.

 

“You seem tense, darling,” she pouted, using her fingers to try to help him to smile, only making him more successfully frown.  Then she sighed and nodded. “Sorry. I get that it’s one of those days.”

 

“I’m not in the mood, Sylvia,” he said coldly.  The sooner that Sylvia stopped spending time with him, the less it would hurt when he left his new friend.  Once this summit was over and Keith was released and Lance safely gets the ledger taken off the property and cloned by Pidge, the Blade would be taking over reintegrating the escorts to their home planets.  Once Lance got the ledger and made sure Keith was okay, he could leave.

 

Speaking of Keith, he saw him for the first time in two days and his whole world stopped.

 

He was frail looking, wearing nothing but a barely there pair of gold shorts and a gold chain that was tied to his collar.  Lance felt his blood boil at the sight of Keith sitting like a dog underneath the Grande Ambassador’s throne. The man himself looked like hell, eyes red-rimmed and expression still somehow smug.

 

Sylvia caught his eye, feathery eyelashes batted cutely.  “Please don’t ignore me, doll. I don’t know you very well, and even I can tell that something is wrong.”

 

No, he wasn’t supposed to be giving off that vibe!  He could blow his entire cover story. He glanced back at Keith, who’d finally caught sight of him.  Lance tried his best to convey everything he wanted to say with the look, how he was terrified about the mission, about how he wished Keith were with him, about how he wished that they were already far away somewhere and safe.

 

Sylvia poked him in the forehead with irritation.

 

“I, umm… I’m just nervous,” his voice was coffee filter thin and just as flimsy, and her expression was unamused as he muttered, “I have a contract appointment in a little bit to discuss some things I’m a little embarrassed about.”

 

A little shocked, she sat back on her heels.  “Oh, I see. I’m assuming I didn’t fit the bill?”

 

Breathing deeply, Lance muttered, “Nope.  You… weren’t cutting it for me.”

 

Her face was stricken for a moment before she pulled a successful mask over, feigning indifference.  “Alright, then. I’ll just go make myself useful where I’m wanted.”

 

Lance’s chest squeezed as she left him there.  His one friend that he made here, the one person that he could actually talk to was marching away from him.  His only other friend was chained up across the room.

 

Lance decided that he wasn’t sure which was worse, and wouldn’t think about it too much.

 

He eyes wandered back to Keith, but he realized that they had moved to a couch.  Keith was propped up in the Ambassador’s lap like a puppet, and they were sitting across from some Galran soldier and his own escort.

 

Except… something was weird about this one.  He hadn’t seen him around anywhere, and he had the distinctly sharp look of someone with Galra in their genes.

 

It was surprisingly easy to find Ellion in the crowd.  He pulled her aside to whisper quickly about it, and she went pale and stiff.

 

“I’ll… I’ll get back to you about that request,” she said easily, and Lance saw her make a beeline for someone else in the crowd.

 

Soon Lance was being pressed back onto a couch by Ellion, her crystal-clear eyes narrowed in distrust.

 

“I asked a colleague of mine, and they have no idea what’s going on with Lethyr, exactly, but I can tell you more about that couple they’re with.”

 

“It’s not an escort?” Lance asked quietly as she rotated her hips attractively.  

 

Her silvery hair was brushed back in irritation as she asked, “Do you see that huge scar on the side of his neck?”

 

Following her line of sight, Lance nodded.  “Yeah, I see that.”

 

“It’s a bonding mark.  If one of a pair has any Galra in their gene pool, a bonding mark basically guarantees that the two will only mate with each other.”

 

“So…” Lance’s eyes widened, “He’s trapped forever.”

 

Ellion leveled an impatient glance at Lance.  “This life is trapping us forever. His prison just changed forms.  It went from a physical prison to a mental one.”

 

“I don’t get it though.  They’re both men, right?”

 

Ellion bit at his neck in irritation, and Lance actually jumped.  “You know that Galra are hermaphrodites. Their presentation of gender is one thing.  Their chosen role in reproduction is another. It’s usually determined by time they’re fifteen, and doesn’t necessarily match their given gender.  So, for example, both Borak and Zanaz are gendered male, but Borak prefers the carrier role of reproduction, whereas Zanaz prefers the implanter.”

 

Having her refer to someone as an implanter made Lance want to scrub his brain clean.

 

“Why are they there?” Lance asked as he realized how distressed Keith looked.  It wasn’t immediately obvious, but Lance knew Keith’s tells, and he knew that the tense neck and parted lips were at something that horrified him.

 

Ellion shook her head.  “I don’t know. I… I just don’t know.”

 

Lance nodded, letting her up.  “Thank you.”

 

Her eyes met Lance’s in that moment, and for just a second he saw something else there behind the crystal clear glare, but it was gone so quickly that Lance couldn’t take the time to wonder about it.

 

“Good-bye, Lance,” Ellion walked away, her silver skirt fanning around her form in an ethereal display.

 

Lance looked over at the clock, and swallowed.

 

It was time for him to sign his contract, and potentially save hundreds if not thousands of lives.

 

No pressure, of course.

  
  


***

  
  


Keith watched Lance go with trepidation.

 

He didn’t tell Lance what to do with the ledger.  They hadn’t gone over the plan. If everything went the way it was supposed to, then Lance would be leaving in the morning, and Keith… well, Keith was very sure that he wasn’t going to be leaving his current master’s side anytime soon.

 

So many horrible possibilities were running through Keith’s head.  His worry was a tangible thing hanging around his shoulders.

 

“What’s wrong, pet?  You seem upset,” the words were measured and angry, and Keith knew that he had been caught watching Lance.

 

“Sorry, master,” his heart was racing.  If the Grande Ambassador got suspicious of Lance then the entire operation could go up in smoke in seconds.  “Let me make it up to you.”

 

He kneeled between his master’s knees, pulling down his loose pants to free his enormous cock.  Keith took the familiar taste into his mouth, knowing that the sounds he was pulling out would sufficiently distract him so that Lance quickly became the last thing on the Grande Ambassador’s mind.

 

As he distracted, he hoped with everything he was and everything he had that Lance would be able to complete this mission on his own.  Somehow in his own undercover operation he had managed to be rendered completely useless.

 

His skin felt itchy at the thought, and he just hoped that Lance would complete the mission.  It was up to him, now.

  
  


***

  
  


Lance was in the skeevy waiting room again.  His bag was slung over his shoulder, and he tried to run all of Keith’s instructions through his head again for good measure.

 

Keith told him to bring a bag to hold the ledger under the pretense that he wanted a copy of the contract.  Usually they were pretty bulky so bringing a bag is not out of the norm, and Lance could slip both the contract and the ledger into the bag when he was alone in the room.  

 

Keith’s voice was echoing in his head again.  “ _ The ledger is a really old book.  It’s brown and lined with gold. It’s shaped almost perfectly like a cube with how many files were kept in there, so it’s going to be awkward.  Be ready to walk strangely to cover it up.” _

 

His words soothed Lance as he waited patiently.

 

When the Dalmite called him into the records room, he stumbled over nervously, immediately sitting down and scanning the room.

 

There were a lot of records in there, though, and Lance quickly realized that he needed to pay attention to the contract that was written down for him before the Dalmite got suspicious.

 

“Okay so tentacle package contracts with the aphrodisiacs have a few very important pages that you need to sign off on.  Basically in order to protect us in case something happens, you have to sign off that you requested this service and you can’t sue us.  The aphrodisiac means we have our ten-page dubious consent allowance section, so let’s start there.”

 

Lance used the time to peek around the room.  There were books of every color and length, but pretty soon the Dalmite was calling Lance’s attention to the contract.

 

He kept smiling and nodding as the Dalmite went through the contract section by section.  His eyes were wandering, though, trying to spot the ledger. 

 

When the Dalmite called his attention once more, Lance realized that he wasn’t going to be able to search with the other man in the room.

 

Thinking fast, he shouted, “Could you get me some water, please!?”

 

The Dalmite jumped at the tone in Lance’s voice, and grumbled about being right back, leaving Lance alone in the room.

 

He jumped up and started sifting through the piles of books, frantic in his search.  He knew that water wouldn’t keep him out of the room long, so he had a limited time to scramble around.  He also needed to make sure that he didn’t leave things in too much of a disarray, otherwise the Dalmite would definitely notice that he was searching through the room for something.  

 

A click in the door made Lance vault over the table back into his chair, breathing a little heavily but otherwise back in position when the Dalmite came back in with two glasses of water, handing one of them over.

 

“Alright, where were we?”

 

Lance started tapping and jiggling his foot with nerves.  He needed more time to find the ledger, which meant he had to get the Dalmite to leave again, otherwise…

 

His foot connected with something heavy under the table, and he squeaked as his toes throbbed and foot shook in pain.  The edge of the table was closer than he expected, and his eyes were watering as the Dalmite continued to discuss the contract.

 

Eventually the Dalmite looked over and saw Lance’s eyes watering, his brow furrowing in mild annoyance.  “Are you alright?”

 

“Fine!” he said too quickly before shaking his head and propping his foot on the table.  His sneakers came off easily, and the sock was soaked through with blood at the toe already.  He had cracked his toenail in half, and the Dalmite turned practically green with disgust.

 

“Clumsy things, humans, aren’t they?” he mused out loud.  “I’ll go get the first aid kit.”

 

As soon as the Dalmite was gone, Lance stood up and hobbled around the room.  He put his sock back on so as not to track blood everywhere, but hopping around on one foot eventually made him trip over a pile of binders.

 

As he hit the ground, he felt his whole body deflate.  What if they moved the ledger? What if Keith needed to tell Lance about the combination to a secret cabinet, or worse, what if Lance was just forgetting something important that Keith had said?

 

He whined, punching the floor with fear coursing through him.  This ledger was the whole reason he stuck around. It was his job to get it safely out so that Keith wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Now, if he can’t find it, he really would be useless.

 

Tears started to gather in his eyes.  How had he been sent on an easy mission and ended up here?  Not only had he failed in his primary objective, the secondary objective that he picked up when he got here was also a failure.  Keith was chained up right now and Lance couldn’t help him, and Lance can’t do the  _ one thing _ that Keith had asked…

 

Hauling himself up, he sat on the floor in defeat, stretching his foot out under the table that they were going over the contract on.  He knew that he would have to get up before the Dalmite came back, but…

 

The door clicked and he hopped up urgently.  The Dalmite was carrying a green bag, and started taking out supplies and placing them onto the table.

 

“I’m sorry about that,” he said honestly, handing Lance a sanitizing napkin and some gauze.  “Sometimes the secretary doesn’t put the ledger back where it belongs. I’ve smashed my shin into it plenty of times.”

 

Lance’s whole body went cold.

 

Chancing a glance under the table, there it was, in all it’s gold-lined glory.  That was why Lance had split his toe, because it wasn’t the table edge, it was the  _ damn book. _

 

“It’s definitely sturdy,” Lance joked, but his brain was immediately occupied.  It would be easy to slip the ledger into his bag when the Dalmite left the room, but now the Dalmite knew it was under the table and would probably look to move it when they finished.

 

Lance had to decide if he was a gambling man, after all.  It was about time, seeing as he’d been in a casino for the last few days.

 

The Dalmite skipped over some sections of the contract about not making life bonds etc etc and about how he would have to submit to testing to make sure that he wasn’t genetically compatible with the escort in question or carrying any diseases that could translate to her and after almost forty minutes of boring lawyer talk Lance was being directed to “initial, initial, sign here”.

 

“Also, here’s a picture of the escort we’re pairing you with,” the Dalmite handed Lance a picture that Lance stared down at with wide eyes.  A handsome face with the body of an octopus, tentacles extending off his torso and then down to two strong pairs of legs holding him up. The picture had a name under it,  _ Emmett. _

 

“I would like a copy for my own records!” Lance said a little louder than he intended, and the Dalmite’s face fell into another irritated scowl.

 

“I’ll be right back.”

 

The second the door was closed Lance dove underneath the table and grabbed for the ledger.  Keith was right, of course, and it was heavy and awkward, but Lance managed to roll it into his bag.  He was able to lift it to put it on his shoulder, even though it made his hand shake, so he placed the bag back down, praying that the Dalmite wouldn’t notice him struggling.

 

Moments later he came back and handed Lance a bulky folder.  “For your records,” he explained calmly, then Lance smiled, stuffed the folder in his bag, and scuffled from the room.

  
  


***

  
  


When he got back to his room, his heart was racing.

 

There was a very high chance that Lance had completely fucked himself over.  If the Dalmite checked under the table he would see that the ledger was missing.  

 

Keith was supposed to be here with Lance!!!  Keith was supposed to tell him where to hide it and discuss the next stage of the plan.  Keith had mentioned hiding it under the bed, so Lance scrambled under the bed and pressed it all the way back. 

 

If Pidge was here she could just scan the information into a device.  If Keith was here he’d know what to do. If Shiro was here he would have already escaped.  Hunk wouldn’t have stubbed his toe and brought attention to it in the first place. Allura would’ve been able to charm the Dalmite into distraction.

 

He wasn’t any of them, though, he was himself.  The blue paladin in a red lion sitting atop of a failed mission just waiting to be found out.

 

He hit the wall and slid down, his entire body shaking as he buried his head in his hands.

 

Who decided that he was supposed to be a defender of the universe?  He was just a kid! His own family barely trusted him to work the stove at home, how did he end up piloting one of the strongest weapons ever created?

 

He wanted Keith to be here.  He wanted Keith to be huddled against him, a comfortable weight.  He wanted to run his fingers through his hair and tell him about how he completed the mission and didn’t fail yet.  The key word in that sentence being “yet”.

 

The clock ticked on the wall, and he watched it as it crawled on slowly.  After a while, though, Lance started to calm down. Maybe they didn’t notice the ledger was missing.  Maybe Lance had actually pulled it off. Maybe, just maybe…

 

A knock came at his door, and he jumped up, hands shaking as he limped over to the door.

 

Behind it were two smiling Dalmites.  They were holding a small kit, and Lance eyed it warily.

 

“We’re here to run your tests for your contract,” one of them piped up, and Lance felt relief flood his system as they instructed him to strip.

 

The only hiccup was when he had to very gingerly ease out of his sock.  There was a little discomfort as the Dalmites inserted swabs into his various… orifices… but once that was done and they chirped that he should be hearing back sometime that night about his requests being processed.

 

“Requests, as in plural?” Lance asked, confused, and the Dalmite nodded.

 

“You have your special request, and also your request to purchase one of our escorts.  Both of them are being processed at this time.

 

Dumbfounded, they both left, leaving Lance naked and afraid.  He had assumed after Keith had been collared that the courting had been taken off the table altogether, but it seemed that it was still being reviewed.

 

For a moment, Lance wondered if perhaps he’d gotten away with everything after all.

 

Then there came a knock at his door again.

 

Lance jumped ten feet in the air at the sound.  He scrambled to throw on pants, and went over to the door, only opening it a crack.  

 

Sylvia stared back at him with a tight smile.

 

“Hey there, handsome,” she said, leaning against the doorframe.  She was wearing a loose lacy dress, the bottom of which coming down to brush her thigh.  

 

Lance felt his arguments rush away from him as he reached out and hugged her.

 

She stiffened.  “Lance? Are you alright?”

 

“Yeah,” he started chuckling to cover up the fact that he was shaking, “What are you doing up here?”

 

“They sent me up here.  I’m supposed to show you to your courting room for tonight with Lethyr.”

 

That was odd, but Lance just felt himself relax.  He would get to see Keith, even if only for a little while.  He could discuss the rest of the plan, and snuggle up close to him for the first time in two days.

 

Sylvia held out her hand and Lance took it.  She guided him down the hallways towards the elevators, and Lance felt himself calm down immediately.  Sylvia was his friend, and she was going to bring him to Keith.

 

When they reached the escort service area, she picked up a key from the front desk and guided Lance back towards one of the rooms.

 

When she turned the knob and opened the door, Lance frowned.  Keith was usually waiting inside on the bed already, but no one was in the room.

 

Sylvia froze in the doorway.  “I… was told he’d be here…” her eyes were sparkling with fear, and that was when Lance saw movement of someone hiding behind the door.

 

Jumping back out of the room quickly, he bolted.  Why had they been waiting for him? Were they going to ambush him?  Unless…

 

...Lance’s heart jumped to his throat as he scrambled back towards his rooms, sprinting as fast as he could, barely missing running into multiple patrons on the way.  Soon he was tapping his foot impatiently in the elevator. Would they come after him up here? Would they follow him? He needed to grab his things and the ledger and get off this planet as soon as possible.

 

When he got back to the room, his world stopped.

 

There were items and dust sprawled around the side of the bed.  Lance dropped to his knees, and saw that the ledger was gone.

 

No, no, no…

 

This must be a nightmare, right?  This couldn’t be real. Lance grabbed up his bag, and searched around for his communicator, but… it wasn’t anywhere to be found.

 

It was then that he caught sight of a crumpled up piece of paper.  He scooped it up and read it over, blood draining from his face.

 

_ Voltron paladin, _

 

_ I hope this gets to you before anything can happen.  I’ve just learned the truth, and that is that the Grande Ambassador planned to rope you into our organization.  He plans to make you sign a contract that will have a clause where you relinquish your autonomy. Do not sign anything any of them give you.  If you do, they’ll be able to collar you and they’ll have your permission. _

 

_ Get off this planet as soon as you can.   _

 

_ -Sable _

 

The piece of paper fluttered to the ground as he heard his door being smashed open.  Three strong Dalmite men were in the doorway, looking at Lance with small and victorious smiles.

 

“We’re here to take you downstairs, pet.”

 

The ledger was gone, they’d probably grabbed it while he was out.  Keith was out of commission. He’d signed a contract very recently, where he was ignoring most of the fine print so that he could find the ledger instead.

 

The fine print must have the part where he signed himself away.

 

He heard a click behind him.  Turning around, he saw that they were holding a small metal collar, not dissimilar to Keith’s.  It was open and blinking, one of them holding it up playfully.

 

They’d failed, and now Lance was trapped here too.

 

His hands shook as he stared at the wall, dazed.

 

They were never getting off this planet.

 

He didn’t fight as he was roughly grabbed, as a needle sunk into his neck, and then the collar was strapped on.  His body was a rag doll.

 

As the world started to fade away, Lance tried to remember the smell of Keith.  Not the mating scent, but his natural smell. He closed his eyes and pretended that he was wrapped up in those arms instead of being dragged away.

 

His gold card fell to the floor when he finally collapsed.

  
  


***

  
  


Keith hadn’t been taken back to his room in days.  He’d taken up a permanent residence in the Grande Ambassador’s chambers.  He would sleep during the day, and when he was joined at night he would be handled roughly and used and abused to the point that the hours and days started blurring together.  He was there for only a few minutes but also a few weeks, it seemed.

 

At some point Keith was woken up by the handler that had spoken to him a few days earlier after he found Sable’s body.

 

“You need to get up.  You’re being brought to your potential buyer.”

 

Potential buyer?

 

_ Lance. _

 

Keith got up immediately.  The handler told him he had a little while to clean up, but then he needed to be ready to depart.  Keith took a shower, letting the warm water wash down his aching body. He had bruises on his hips and ribs, and his lower back was screaming out in pain.  He stayed under the searing hot spray for as long as he could justify before turning it off and getting dressed again.

 

When he came back out into the room, she was clicking around on her tablet impatiently before waving for him.  “Come on.”

 

Hopping at the chance to leave, Keith followed dutifully.  He could feel the pressure on his lungs lessen the farther and farther away he got from the horrid rooms of his favorite tormentor.

 

Then he realized that they were in the wrong hallway.  They must have moved Lance to a larger room Keith reasoned, hands tightened at his sides.

 

Something had been bothering him for a few days now, and as he looked at the back of his new handler’s head, he tried to puzzle out Sable’s last words.

 

They were odd, that was for sure. “He let him go.”  Who was she referring to? Was she saying that Keith should let Lance go?  Was she trying to explain that Keith was going to be released soon?

 

Who were the people he was referring to?  What information was he missing?

 

Something Ellion said came back to him suddenly, and he felt his blood turn to ice.

 

_ “I just… I don’t think that you can trust anything that this place offers” _

 

The handler reached a door and opened it, gesturing for Keith to go inside.  His hands shook as he walked into the room.

 

“Lethyr, this is your new owner, Jovak.  Please behave as all of your wants and needs will be taken care of by him from now on.”

 

That was it, and the handler walked out the door.  It shut with loud finality behind him.

 

Yellow Galran eyes met his purple ones as he felt a shiver go through him.

 

He was trapped. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ............... yeah that happened.
> 
> If you like this, check out some of my other fics!


	10. Katya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith both face the consequences of their plan going wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everyone who hates me a lot right now for the last chapter's content, just a heads up it won't let up much in this chapter. It's going to be pretty intense until the end. Sorrynotsorry<3
> 
> I hope all of you are planning on having a lovely weekend! I had a shitty start because I ended up hospitalized the other day. I'm fine now, but need to rest up and keep from overexerting myself. This translates into me putting a ridiculous amount of time into my fics so you will reap the rewards of my misfortune
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with forced sex work and sex slaves. Due to the nature of the content, be prepared to deal with consent issues and dark themes. In this chapter be ready to watch some emotional, physical, and psychological manipulation. If this fic makes you feel some type of way, reach out to a loved one or a professional
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Keith’s whole body was buzzing with fear and adrenaline.

 

Jovak was standing there before him, a malicious grin showing off his sharp teeth.  His yellow eyes were narrowed on Keith as he moved towards the young man slowly.

 

“Welcome, Lethyr.  As of twenty minutes ago, I have purchased you.  You’re mine.”

 

The words were so absolute.  Keith’s blood ran cold, icy even, hands shaking.

 

No, no, no, no, no…

 

Keith felt all of his freedom slip out from his fingers.  His breath was caught in his throat. No, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go.  He was supposed to go to the summit as the Grande Ambassador’s escort. He was supposed to be meeting Lance here to talk to him about their plan.

 

Lance, oh no,  _ Lance…  _ for a moment Keith felt relief.  Lance had the ledger. If nothing else, Lance had the information to help re-assimilate all of the slaves.  Even if his time here was… even if…

 

As Jovak approached Keith, he felt his gut twist together inside of him.

 

“Do you know how Galrans mate?”

 

His clawed hand came up and stroked Keith’s face, making him shake more violently.  “No, master.”

 

Jovak’s soft brush against Keith’s face suddenly turned rough as he forced Keith’s jaw up so that they were making eye contact.  “I’m going to breed you like a bitch. First I’m going to fuck you into oblivion. I’ll fuck you so thoroughly that you won’t remember a cock before mine came.  I’ll shove my knot in you and breed you full and when you’re full of my seed I’ll bite your neck to bond us together forever.”

 

Did the floor suddenly disappear out from underneath Keith?  It must have. Every other encounter Keith had while on this mission he could separate himself from.  There were no long-term consequences. He couldn’t get an infection or pregnant, so he could remove himself from the numerous partners who’d taken advantage of him and hurt him.  This was real, though. This was actually dangerous, this was someone who can take away his free will for the rest of his life.

 

Gulping, Keith felt rather than saw Jovak lifting him up then tossing him carelessly onto the bed.  The general’s toothy grin smirked down at Keith as he started whimpering beneath him, before…

 

...it hit him, then.  The apple orchard scent started pumping into the air around him, and Keith found himself growing hot and complacent, his body responding without his permission, and he was very quickly losing perspective because his priorities were shifting from completing his mission to… to… 

 

The feeling of his body going lax under Jovak was soothing.  Yes, he felt better now. He felt like he wanted to be here, wanted to be held by these arms.  The smell was overtaking him, and he could feel himself start to get turned on.

 

If Keith had been spending his whole life waiting for something, it was this.  His voice broke as he whispered, “Please, please, master…”

 

Keith could feel Jovak’s hand running all over his body, making him keen into the touch.  “Don’t worry, pet. You’ll be mine soon.”

 

The edges of the room started to get hazy as Keith’s focus narrowed down to what he could feel.  Desperation started closing in on him as he felt Jovak’s claws start to tear at his flimsy clothing.  Soon he was naked and hard and dripping, hands reaching out to bring his master closer to him because he was going to be mated!  He was going to be complete! His body was so hot and practically thrumming with want and… it felt so good to be underneath someone and to know that he’d be claimed.

 

Jovak stood back up, making Keith cry out in despair.  He chuckled, running his hand over Keith’s flushed chest.  “Quiet, pet. I’m just getting undressed so I can show you who your master really is.”

 

The words made a shock of need slice through Keith’s resolve.  So much of his life felt like it was dissolving, memories and relationships and goals and accomplishments and dreams and faces all flashed before him and disintegrated into dust before this one singular need that was taking everything over.

 

When Jovak’s cock came out of his pants, Keith’s mouth started to water.  His master was extremely well-endowed, and it only drove Keith crazier because he wanted it buried inside of him already.  He wanted to be claimed by that cock, stuffed up tight and… and…

 

Jovak’s fingers were prodding at Keith’s entrance now that they were both naked and exposed.  Unthinkingly he opened his legs wider, whimpering as Jovak pressed in and wiggled around inside of him.

 

“I need you,” Keith’s voice had been reduced to a high-pitched whine, and Jovak chuckled.  Keith’s flushed face was gazing up at his master hopefully.

 

“You want my cock, pet?”

 

His master’s hardness was suddenly pressed up against his stomach.  It was huge and dripping precome and Keith’s hands came down to stroke it, then guided it down towards his awaiting entrance.

 

“Make me yours,” Keith begged, heat flickering low in his gut as the velvety tip of his master’s cock brushed against the lubrication that Keith was squirting.  It sounded like the epitome of happiness, and excitement rushed through him as he felt the cock start to press in.

 

Tears started to gather in Keith’s purple eyes as Jovak pressed in all the way, seating deep into the warm, tight passage.  The tears overflowed as the feeling of wholeness, the feeling of being full, came over him.

 

A white calm overtook him for a moment.  Everything else faded away except for this...

 

It was all that mattered.  It was the only thing he wanted or needed.  It set his whole body on fire at the same time that he laughed because he’d never felt so happy in his entire life.  He’d been waiting every day of his life to be mated like this, and it was finally happening. He was going to be filled, and fucked, and used and abused and nothing else sounded better than that.

 

The cock inside of Keith thrummed as Jovak pulled Keith back, bending him double over the side of the bed and sinking deeper into him at the angle.  Keith’s eyes rolled back in his head as he shifted his weight so that he was practically sitting back onto Jovak’s cock. Keith felt like their hearts were beating together, like anything and everything in his body that wasn’t being fucked was completely irrelevant.  Everything narrowed down to this one thing.

 

Then, he started getting pounded.

 

Every movement was bliss.  The pain filled something in Keith that he didn’t even realize was missing.  Jovak’s monster cock stretched him out so well, and Keith didn’t think he’d be able to walk after this.  He hoped so, too, so that he could be filled over and over and over…

 

“Come inside me,” Keith breathed, trying to make his voice louder but too breathless from the sensation of being fucked, “please, come inside of me.”

 

Growling suddenly, the pounding got harder.  Claws dug into Keith’s hips, and Keith was screaming in ecstasy at this point.  Only a moment or two later, though, Keith felt something shifting beneath him, and Jovak’s hands were suddenly brushing through Keith’s hair.

 

“Will my knot be your first, pet?”

 

The word “knot” set Keith ablaze, but he didn’t even know what that meant.  “Yes,” his voice was breathless as he prepared himself for whatever a “knot” was.

 

Growling in approval, Jovak’s nose suddenly came down to brush against Keith’s neck gently, pressing sucking kisses to his skin there.  “I’m going to fill you up, my pet, my mate, my love…” his voice trailed off as Keith screamed again, cunt tightening around Jovak’s cock as come pulsed inside of Keith.

 

“Yes, fill me up master,” Keith was crying again, pressing back against the warmth spilling inside of him.  If having Jovak’s cock inside of him made him feel whole, then having him come inside of Keith was like he ascended to a new plane of existence.  White lights spotted behind his vision as every nerve in his body sang out at the sensation.

 

When the pulsing started slowing down, Keith felt something press against his entrance as a larger object forced itself in.  It was tight and painful due to Keith’s sensitivity, but somehow the feeling of that large object inside of Keith filled him with pride.

 

He’d taken a knot from his master.  He was full of his come. He was full and he would keep getting filled until he got knocked up and then he’d still get bred over and over and over and…

 

Jovak repositioned them so that he was sitting up against the headboard with Keith seated backwards in his lap.  Keith’s neck was lolling, drool dripping down his chin. Then, calloused hands were moving over Keith’s abdomen, feeling the lump where his come had gathered and making him hum.

 

“You take me so well, pet.  You were made to take cock,” his voice was rough but also reverent, making Keith melt further into his embrace.

 

“Master,” Keith’s voice was so overtaken with pleasure that he sounded desperate, but he didn’t care.  His hands came up to tilt Jovak’s face towards his neck.

 

“Master,” he pleaded again, and Keith whimpered when a few soft kisses were pressed against his neck.

 

Then, like a knife through softened butter, teeth sunk into his neck.  The floodgates were opened and overwhelming, suddenly feeling his master’s pleasure and his own as one and before he knew it he was grinding down onto Jovak’s knot, testing the edges and the tightness of their binding point.

 

“You’re mine now, pet,” Jovak whispered, biting playfully at Keith’s ear, and he just sighed contentedly.

 

This is what he’d been waiting for.  This was the fulfillment he wanted.

 

When his master’s knot died down, he pulled out much to Keith’s terror.  His panic lasted only a short while, though, because Jovak stuffed his come-drenched soft member into Keith’s mouth.

 

The apple orchard smell was suddenly inside of him, burning down his throat and making him moan and suck happily, wanting more of the taste to feel good.  

 

“Such a talented mouth.  You’ll do so well while I’m at my post.  I bet I could stuff you full of my come and leave you until I come back, you little slut.”

 

That sounded… Keith sucked enthusiastically and swallowed Jovak down harsher, making sure his master knew how good that sounded.

 

Nothing else mattered, of course.

 

As Jovak came down Keith’s throat, hot and salty and lewd in the best ways, Keith whimpered again when he ran out of come to lick up.

 

“I need more, master,” Keith’s hands started working over Jovak’s length, and Jovak chuckled, grabbing Keith’s wrists and pinning him down under him, observing Keith from above like a hunter eyes prey.

 

“More what, pet?”

 

“I need more of your come,” his voice was raw and cracking, and when Jovak just smiled Keith gladly opened his legs and his mouth so he had plenty of options.  He was craving it like water in the desert, and not only that, he needed it so badly that his blood started to sing in pain.

 

“Will I need to stay inside of you all night?” Jovak teased, nipping playfully at the bleeding bond mark on Keith’s neck, and Keith’s hands came up and fisted Jovak’s shirt tightly, bringing him down to meet him.

 

“Yes, please, master.  Stay inside of me until I’m so full it hurts.”

 

As Jovak chuckled and nodded, Keith felt himself float up onto cloud nine like a helium balloon.  Then, a few moments later, something was slipping inside of Keith’s sore and used entrance, making him see stars as the fire in his gut started up again.

  
  


***

  
  


In his dreams, Keith was in his happy place.

 

Except he wasn’t sure where he was.  He was… in the middle of a room?... with maps of the stars cast out around him like a 3-D depiction of the universe.

 

Hands came around his stomach and started stroking his abdomen, making Keith smile.

 

“Master…”

 

...when Keith turned around, though, it wasn’t his master.  Instead it was a skinny boy with sparkling blue eyes and a confused expression.  He was extremely attractive, Keith would say objectively, but he couldn’t feel anything for this boy at all.

 

“Who is ‘master’?  Keith, it’s me,” the boy pointed at himself like that explained everything, but Keith just shook his head, adamant that there was a huge mistake.

 

“I don’t know you,” Keith backed up, “who is Keith?!”

 

He was pulled back to bed with Jovak, broken out in a cold sweat.  Keith tried not to move, knowing that he was somewhere between his fourth and fifth knot of the night and needed to keep himself from exerting too much energy.  As he pressed against his stomach, distended with its contents, Keith knew that this was real. Strange dream boys were nothing compared to this connection he had with his master.

 

“Sleep, pet,” Jovak yawned, and Keith nuzzled back against his master, drifting off to sleep yet again.

  
  


***

  
  


Something horrible had happened.

 

Someone had torn something out of Keith’s chest, and his breathing was coming in short gasps.

 

Keith jumped up, fumbling in the bed and then shouting out in pain as his body rejected the movement and collapsed him onto the silken sheets.  There was movement from nearby, and Keith sighed in relief as Jovak came out of the bathroom, watching Keith with knowing eyes.

 

“Did I go too far, pet?”

 

Whimpering sadly, Keith nodded.  The closer his master got to him the calmer he felt, until Jovak was curled against Keith again.  His huge, warm body was dwarfing Keith, and he nuzzled closer to his master’s neck, taking a fresh breath of his mating scent.

 

“I only have a few more hours at most in me, pet.  I hope you’re not this insatiable all the time.”

 

Grumbling in discontent, Keith looked up at Jovak, frustrated.  “What if I am?”

 

The outburst made them both freeze for a moment before Jovak laughed and licked and bit at Keith’s chest.

 

“You’ll be so beautiful full of my children…” Jovak’s tongue traveled lower, kissing at Keith’s still full abdomen, “You’re probably already carrying, but it’s too soon to tell, of course.”

 

Just that thought alone lit a fire under Keith, and he felt Jovak’s warm mouth travel from his abdomen to Keith’s aching entrance.  Whimpering, Keith’s fingers brushed Jovak’s purple hair back, the tongue dipping into his slit and making him see stars.

 

When Keith squirted with an orgasm, Jovak came up to look Keith in the eye, his mouth red and puffy from sucking and licking at Keith, eyes blown side with lust.  “You’re mine.”

 

“I’m yours,” Keith parroted back happily.  He was, and he was happy.

  
  


***

  
  


Katya remembered what her sister had looked like after being bonded and mated.

 

Her cheeks were flushed, eyes glazed over in content.  Katya remembered trying to talk to her sister, trying to snap her out of it, but her sister didn’t even remember her own name.

 

So as Katya walked into social hour and started to make her rounds, her stomach dropped through the floor.

 

General Jovak was sitting in a formal suit with Lethyr perched on his lap.  Lethyr was eyeing everyone around them warily, like he wanted Jovak to himself, like he wanted to be anywhere but in public.

 

As Katya approached, she saw his glazed-over expression.  Her stomach sunk through the floor when she realized that Jovak was patting his abdomen possessively, and Lethyr dropped his head back against Jovak’s shoulder, whispering happily into his master’s ear.

 

Katya felt sick.  Katya felt like the world was collapsing.  She started looking around frantically, and caught sight of Ellion only a booth or two away entertaining two Dalmite men.  Katya quickly came over and smiled at Ellion, sitting down in the lap of the other man. She glanced over at Lethyr, and she could see from Ellion’s dark expression that she already knew what was wrong.

 

Suddenly a small boy with pink hair came running between legs and through the crowd picking up glasses and plates that weren’t being used anymore.  The little boy went in front of Jovak and froze, eyes widening in terror.

 

“Mr. Lele?” Ganus’ mouth was parted with fear, “Are you alright?”

 

Jovak looked down at the small, pink haired boy for a moment.  “Are you friends with my mate, little one?”

 

Shaking his head, Ganus muttered, “We just know each other.”

 

One of the other Galran soldiers ruffled up Ganus’ hair.  “Run along little whore. It’s not your time yet.”

 

The boy wasn’t moving, however, and Lethyr wasn’t even acknowledging his existence.

 

Something broke in that kid in that moment, and Katya saw him shuffle away with anger rolling off of him in waves

 

“Who is that?” Katya asked curiously at the little boy, and the Dalmite she was sitting with chuckled.  

 

“He’s being groomed right now.  He’ll be working when he’s old enough.”

 

Right, the children.  How could Katya forget the children?

 

She knew that Lethyr was one who visited the children often.  They adored him down there. Most of the escorts stayed away, including her, claiming that being around the children reminded them that they used to all be innocent and young before the world got to them.  For the most part, no one paid those kids any mind.

 

When social hour ended, Katya and Ellion filed out of the hall before they were pulled roughly aside by Arietta.

 

“Did you see him?” she asked frantically, and the two of them grimaced.  There was heavy air hanging around all of them as their concerns became all the more real.  “It happened last night, apparently. I hadn’t even seen him in days. They’ll be sticking around for the summit, but then Jovak is going to leave with him.”

 

Katya remembered what it was like after her sister was bonded.  She remembered the glazed look in her eyes, how her thoughts never seemed to be her own but only echoes of what her Galra wanted.  Seeing Lethyr like that made her want to puke.

 

“We can’t do anything,” Ellion hissed as Katya’s expression shifted from disgust to outrage, “It’s too late.  They’re bonded.”

 

“He can’t be bonded to a dead Galra,” Katya hissed, and Arietta stepped in at that point.

 

“Neither of you will be doing anything.  This matter is closed. Lethyr is gone, and I’m not letting you two put your lives and freedom at risk because you want to play heroes.”

 

The two of them looked at each other warily before departing back towards their rooms.

 

In an odd stroke of luck, though, they were stopped by yet another fellow escort.  Sylvia’s bright eyes watched them with fear as they turned to her.

 

“I’m getting worried,” she said softly, “I’ve seen Lance hanging out with you, Ellion.  I haven’t talked to him in a while. I brought him to his courting yesterday but he ran away and his room is empty and I’m  _ freaking out _ .”

 

Ellion felt like her tethers were being cut.

 

Lance was missing.  Lethyr was bonded and essentially brain dead.  What else could happen?

 

“If we see him we’ll send him your way,” Katya reassured when Ellion just stared blankly at the other woman.  “You alright?”

 

“No,” she growled out as the two of them made their way to their own rooms.

 

Ellion’s handler discussed her numbers for the day and then ended with, “Oh by the way we’re going to be having a new escort shadowing Arietta tomorrow.”

 

She waved it off, but then felt her stomach sink to the floor.

 

“Who is the new escort?”

 

She tapped her chin thoughtfully.  “I think his name is Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I introduced some mild ABO elements in here so if you guys have any world building questions please feel free to comment here or message me on tumblr (painted-lady12) or twitter (painted_lady12)
> 
> If you like this, check out some of my other fics!!!


	11. Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is given a crash course in escort. Later, there is a glimmer of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hoo heya 
> 
> That last chapter was really something, wasn't it? It was simultaneously horrifying and fascinating to write.
> 
> Things that I will not give away:   
> 1\. MPreg status  
> 2\. Who lives  
> 3\. Who dies  
> 4\. Wheretf is Voltron?!  
> 5\. What are the kids planning?   
> 6\. Will the plan succeed?  
> 7\. Is Klance still end game?  
> 8\. WILL I EVER STOP TORTURING MY READERS??!!??!!
> 
> Those answers and more will be revealed over the last few chapters of this fic.
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with forced sex work and sex slavery. Due to the nature of this content, be prepared to deal with disturbing themes and consent issues. If this fic makes you feel some type of way, reach out to a loved one or professional (or both!)
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

It was dark for a while.

 

He could feel people touching him and moving him, but his sight was nonexistent.  He wasn’t sure if it was the lights or if he had a blindfold on but he wasn’t able to see anything, just a black expanse of space but without the normal glittering expanse of stars.

 

It could have been hours or it could have been days.

 

He spent a long time trying to figure out how he got there.  Mostly, he was wondering why he didn’t just leave Phoem with the ledger immediately.  Going back through every moment since he got to this fucked-up planet was his methodological way of passing the time, but it was excruciating.

 

If only he’d left the planet before things got worse.

 

If only he hadn’t tried to insert himself into Keith’s mission.

 

If only he could have noticed the signs that this was turning into a trap. 

 

If only he’d thought to just leave with Keith while they had the chance.

 

If only if only if only if only if only if only if only if…..

 

...if only he was a stronger, more competent man.

 

When he was done combing through the last week to see what he could have done differently, he started realizing that they were changing his body.

 

At first it was simple stuff.  He could feel long stripes of fabric rip his leg hair and other body hair off.  He felt the brush of makeup like paint over his many scars. They shaved his face and plucked his brows and filed down his toes and finally after all that came to the realization that this wasn’t a nightmare.

 

Suddenly, the whole situation was real.  There was cool metal that could hurt him around his neck, and he’d signed away his freedom to be placed in a life of a sex slave.

 

When they were done making his body as hairless as a Barbie doll was when they started poking around at his parts.  Occasionally they would prick at his forearm which he could only assume was an IV. It was invasive, but very clinical.  They took swabs of different parts of him, and poked and prodded at his dick and ass to see what they were all about. There was quiet chatter about how Lance didn’t naturally lubricate, which made him shiver involuntarily.  He really, really didn’t want them to figure out how to change that.

 

Then for a while he was just left by himself.  He wasn’t sure if he was lying down or propped up or even if he still looked like himself, and that was the point where he started thinking about Keith.

 

Lance thought about Keith being walked around on a leash.  He thought about watching Keith get drugged and fucked and treated like a piece of trash.  

 

For a few selfish moments, he wanted to hate Keith for getting him into this mess.  Lance knew, though, that it wasn’t Keith’s fault that he didn’t want to leave.

 

It was Lance’s decision, but…

 

...it felt nice to blame someone else.

 

It was a very long time later that he felt something unstrap from his face and suddenly he was blinking rapidly under dim lighting.  The room he was in looked like a clinic, and there was a Dalmite sitting on a tall chair in front of him, studying him like an experiment.  Lance’s arms and legs were still restrained, and he could see now that there were metal cuffs attaching him to the chair.

 

“What is your name?”

 

Lance grimaced.  “No.”

 

The Dalmite was nonplussed.  “What is your given name?”

 

“Tall, dark, and handsome,” Lance’s voice was lacking the normal flirtatious charm, but it didn’t completely quash his personality.

 

“Okay Taldarkendsome, what is your planet of origin?”

 

Lance was astounded that they had just let the earlier comment slide.  He decided to test his luck further. “Altea.”

 

The Dalmite nodded and typed all of that in.  “Alright, you’re all set. Someone is going to come in and go over your test results with you so that we can start working on getting you out and working.”

 

The Dalmite clicked the door gently shut, and Lance just sat there, stunned.

 

Had they taken him seriously?!  

 

The answer came when someone else filed in.  They weren’t Dalmite this time, but a smaller green man with a pair of spectacles perched on his long nose.

 

“Hi, I’m doctor Sheen and I’ll be going over your medical results and reports with you.  First off, are you comfortable?”

 

Blinking in confusion, Lance said, “No?”

 

He jotted something down on his notepad but otherwise dismissed the comment altogether.  He had black beady eyes like an insect, which made Lance feel like he was being stared at even when his gaze was focused elsewhere.

 

“Alright, so we’ve matched your genetic material with a lifeform from the Milkyway Galaxy.  We’ve run tests and have found that you are genetically compatible with most species, the exception being Dalmite, Olkarion…” he went on a long list of different alien species that either worked at the casino or frequented the casino, “so we will not be matching you with any of them.  You are infertile so we don’t have to worry about you getting pregnant.”

 

The alien was watching Lance closely as if the news would shake him considerably, but Lance just cocked his head to the side.  “Males don’t get pregnant.”

 

Again, doctor Sheen just nodded and jotted down more notes.  

 

“You have been cleared and don’t have any current sexually transmitted illness or disease, and are not able to host any illness or disease from other species.”

 

The words were starting to jumble together in Lance’s head as he tried to focus on the doctor.  His eyes were closing slowly though, because he hadn’t slept in over a day, and the words were losing their meaning.

 

“I noticed that you were a little dehydrated as well, so I’ve ordered a slurry from downstairs to be brought up to sustain you for a short spell.  We’re going to have your handler come pick you up in the next hour to bring you to your new quarters and explain how things work around here. Welcome aboard!” he extended his arm out as if to shake Lance’s cuffed hand, and Lance just stared at the appendage with mild annoyance.

 

Ignoring the look, the doctor ducked out.

 

He sat there, locked down for a while.  Then a knock came at the door, and a tiny kid was being let in with a handful of pouches.  He had green spots running down his neck, and when he saw Lance he let them all fall to the ground.

 

Were humans really that uncommon?  It might have been the fact that he was ass naked, but the kid wasn’t staring at Lance anywhere but his face, and Lance felt the sudden urge to ask this kid what he was thinking.

 

However, when the nurse snapped at the kid for dropping the pouches, Lance decided that he wouldn’t say anything, at least not yet.

 

The kid scrambled over and handed one of the slurries to Lance.  They nurse came in impatiently after him, unlocking Lance’s wrist from the chair so that he could open the pouch and suck down the tangy liquid.  He didn’t even realize how thirsty he was until the last drop spilled out on his tongue and he was left with the unsatisfying ache for more.

 

Then the two of them left, and Lance was left with mobility in one of his arms and nothing else, alone and starting to shiver despite the warm air in the room.

 

The chair was still cold.

  
  


***

  
  


When his handler came, Lance’s ass had fallen asleep already, and he’d been drifting off into fitful naps every few moments.  

 

The handler wasn’t Keith’s, which made Lance a little sad.  She was the only one that he knew in any way, and his handler was taller, with a sharper tongue and no patience whatsoever.  Once he was unlocked she was throwing a robe over to him and telling him to put it on so that he could get moving. When he started rubbing his bruised wrist, she hissed that he needed to speed it up, and felt the small shock in his collar make every hair on his body stand on end.

 

She didn’t tell him her name, or where they were going.  Suddenly they were being guided through a maze of tunnels, and brought into a small room with a bench and a slot in the wall.

 

The slot had something in it, and the handler took the outfit and handed it to Lance.

 

“Get dressed.  You’re due to shadow Arietta, she’s one of our lead girls.”

 

“Um, but I’m a dude,” Lance laughed nervously, but she didn’t seem amused.  “O-okay then.”

 

When Lance laid the outfit out, his heart sunk to his knees.  There were knee-high fishnets and a tight pair of metallic blue shorts, along with silver suspenders covered in sequins and glitter.

 

“I think this is a girl’s outfit,” he tried again without any luck.  The handler narrowed her eyes suddenly.

 

“You need to reach a quota every week.  There are far more men than women who come through our casino, and they are our best paying customers as most of them are extremely wealthy and powerful.  You will do what you need to do to survive.”

 

With shaking hands Lance donned the outfit.  As he snapped the suspenders into place, pulled tight next to his nipples, his stomach twisted painfully.  He felt so exposed and wrong, and just wanted to go hide in a corner or cover his body up. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go!  He was a paladin of Voltron. He was supposed to have some sort of important magical destiny, not be stuck into forced sex work for the rest of his life…

 

Lance supposed that “suppositions” weren’t going to get him anywhere, so he tried to assess the situation.

 

He had no way of contacting Keith.  If anyone could help orchestrate his escape, it was Keith and the Blades.  When they came to extract Keith they could just grab Lance too.

 

He didn’t want to do anything, but it appeared that for now he was “shadowing”, so he would do what he needed to to survive until they were retrieved.  

 

The handler seemed to be his connection to everything.  Getting in good with her was probably an extremely smart move for Lance to make.

 

“So did you come to us on a spaceship?  Because you are out of this world,” Lance winked happily even though he felt so exposed and disgusting, but her face remained impassive.

 

“Go to the floor!” she snapped, and he left the room and turned to leave before he heard a muffled “the other way!” from behind him.

 

When he got to the floor, suddenly it wasn’t an intriguing spy mission with some incredible eye candy.  Suddenly it was the savannah, and the customers were predators and the escorts were the prey, and they weren’t allowed to fight back.

 

He’d never felt so singularly powerless than he did the moment one of the customers looked him up and down appreciatively and muttered, “Save that ass for me later, baby.”

 

His ass was NO ONE’S PROPERTY THANK YOU.

 

Nervous, his breathing started to pick up before he felt a cool scaly hand on his arm and turned quickly to see a woman who looked like a walking talking dragon, dressed up in a gold metal bikini and the heels to match.

 

“You’re Lance, right?” her voice was light but Lance could see that there was panic in her eyes.

 

“That’s me, the one and only,” he chuckled but it fell flat between them.

 

“I’m supposed to show you the ropes.  I won’t be entertaining today, I’ll be walking around and showing you the proper technique and what is expected of you here.  Hopefully if you pay attention today your first week will go smoothly.”

 

Her hand came up and brushed his elbow.  “First lesson is to initiate small uncontrolling touches so that way the person you’re seducing knows you’re interested but doesn’t feel threatened.”

 

Gulping, Lance nodded, her feather-light touch drawing him in closer.

 

“The second lesson is that there are cameras in each corner of the room, so that if you angle yourself the right way they can’t read your lips.”

 

Lance could feel his hands start to shake as he listened to Arietta throw him a lifeline.

 

“The third lesson,” she whispered even quieter this time, “Is that there is no way out.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a peasant or a queen, once you’re here you’re never leaving. So stop trying to plan escape routes and start playing your cards and being smart about the connections you make here.”

 

Like that the tiny light that had been flickering precariously, hoping that he would be saved was snuffed out, and he felt like someone had come in and scooped out part of his chest, just leaving an empty cavern in its wake.

 

Arietta brought them over to a small group of escorts draped across Galra soldiers.

 

“The escort’s job is to be an accessory.  You are an interchangable part of their day, no more and no less.  You can always be replaced. So, sometimes establishing relationships helps you to bolster your popularity and create an easier and safer environment for you.”

 

Was this how Keith’s orientation had gone?  What did it look like the first time Keith had to drape himself over a Dalmite?  Did he look nervous? Scared? Angry? Confused? He wondered what Keith would say if he could see him now.

 

He wondered as Arietta brought him of a tour around the room.

 

“We entertain many species here, mostly Dalmites and their cohorts.  The Galra are our suppliers, so they are frequent fliers here. It’s not uncommon for there to be up to forty different species visiting at any one time, so always be prepared for anything.  This casino and entertainment group is focused on purely the dynamic between a carrier and implanter form of reproduction. So, there is usually something to stick and somewhere to stick it. There are a few more complicated kinks catered to behind the scenes, but you won’t need to worry about that.  There are other locations that play to those who go about their mating differently, but it will be mostly insertive intercouse.”

 

Lance wanted to sink into the ground.  He’d had sex with a man exactly once, when Keith had held him close and fucked him with care and patience.

 

It didn’t seem all that appealing, anymore.

 

Arietta brought him around and showed him the proper etiquette in the entertainment room.  “You do whatever your master wishes. If you disobey, you have to make up for what you did somehow, in a way that is decided by the master.  You are to submit to everything anyone who is a paying customer does to you, understand?”

 

They passed an escort on one side of them that made Lance freeze.  She was bent over and was being penetrated on both ends by two Dalmites, her legs shaking and tears flowing freely down her face.

 

Lance wanted to leave.  He needed to leave immediately.  He couldn’t do this. He wasn’t supposed to be here.  This wasn’t his life. Somehow in the matter of days he went from having all the power in the world to having no power at all, and it made him want to vomit all over the entertainment floor.  He didn’t choose any of this. When was all his power stripped away from him? Was it with his clothes? Was it with his body hair? Was it while a doctor poked and prodded at him with no consideration for his comfort?

 

Maybe it was when a hand came out and started massaging Lance’s ass, making him jump and elbow the person behind him out of instinct.

 

The Dalmite’s bright blue eyes were furious.  “You worthless little…”

 

Arietta stepped between them suddenly, and for the first time Lance understood that the woman he was trailing had power.  The Dalmlite was almost quivering in his boots. “He’s still learning. Be patient, Dev.”

 

Dev sat down and avoided eye contact, his face flaming with a blush.

 

At the end of the hour, Arietta guided Lance back to his room.

 

As she left him, she told him to be ready by morning for her to come pick him up for more training.

 

***

  
  


Lance didn’t sleep.

 

He stared at the ceiling of his tiny bedroom, his twin sized bed comfortable but far too low to the ground for his liking.

 

Was this his life, now?  Did his day begin and end with someone else unlocking his door?  Suddenly Lance understood why Keith was so angry that Lance could have blown his cover.  Taking this treatment for weeks would drive Lance insane, and he’d only been collared for a few hours.

 

At a very late hour he heard a gentle knock on his door.  He opened it, and the little kid who brought his slurry over was standing there with wide eyes, looking up at Lance with awe.

 

“What are you doing here, kid?”

 

The kid gulped, green spots jumping at the movement, and handed Lance another slurry.  “They want to make sure that you’re getting all your nutrients.”

 

The look on his face was trying to convey something else, but Lance was exhausted and didn’t have time for games.

 

“Are there cameras in here?” Lance asked without concern, and the kid’s eyes narrowed.  

 

“There are some in the next room over.  No one can give you anything without that camera seeing it,” he pointed up at a tiny blinking blue light on the far wall, and Lance gazed at the light in interest.  “Good night, sir.”

 

The kid bowed out then, and Lance took the slurry without questioning it, starting to suck down the liquid like it was the nectar of the gods.

 

His door closed with finality.

 

Until, of course, he almost swallowed something that was definitely not a liquid.

 

Choking, Lance fell to the floor as his breath caught at the hard object in his throat.  He coughed and tears started pouring from his eyes as his fingers reached shakily into his mouth and he managed to pull out a piece of metal.

 

His eyes narrowed as he looked at it, and realized that it had a blinking red light on the tip, just like there was a blinking red light on his door.

 

What the little kid said earlier made him realize… that he’d snuck Lance a  _ key _ .  He wasn’t sure if it was to just his room, or maybe other rooms in the building, but that kid had risked so much to make sure that Lance had a fighting chance.

 

Tucking the key into his pillowcase, he started to hatch a plan.

  
  


***

  
  


The plan was simple.  Lance promised himself that this time, it really would be.  

 

He was going to leave his room for social hour to follow Arietta around.  While out, he was going to do some recon to figure out where Keith was being kept at the moment, and would find him so that they can both hatch a plan to get the collars off and to get to Lance’s transport.

 

It would work, he was sure of it.

 

So when he went out onto the entertainment floor and was touched gently on the elbow, he turned to see none other than a serious complication.

 

Sylvia’s eyes were swimming with confusion.  She tried to keep a straight face, but her hands brushed along Lance’s collar questioningly, shaking as they went.

 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I’m… I don’t know what to say.”

 

Lance brought her close to him so that they were whispering almost directly into each other’s ears.  “I need to get out of this, Sylvia.”

 

Laughter started, real, honest, crazed laughter.  Lance pulled back in shock, but she just dug in her nails tighter and kept him there.

 

“I am one of the deadliest warriors on my homeworld.  If there was a way to escape, do you really think I wouldn’t have already tried?” the words made Lance’s stomach twist with fear, “I’m so sorry this happened to you, but I can’t help you.”

 

She squeezed his hand reassuringly and parted, heading over to a large group of Dalmite business men with suits on and bright hair slicked back.

 

Lance was left with a chill all along where she had been pressed, and an annoyed Arietta caught up to him and snapped.  “Come on, little duckling!”

 

Once Lance caught up to stand next to Arietta, he asked, “I’m curious, have you seen Lethyr around?”

 

Arietta’s sharp eyes cut over to Lance, and Lance was suddenly afraid.  “You were the one courting him, right?”

 

Lance nodded and Arietta sighed, brushing her hand gently against Lance’s arm to console him.  

 

“You two will see each other in passing, but that is all.  For all intents and purposes, any relationship that you had with Lethyr is effectively terminated.”

 

No, Lance wouldn’t accept that.  They would be able to figure a way out together, right?  Lance just needed to find Keith and then they could plan an escape.

 

That was the mantra in Lance’s head for the next hour, and then during his quiet lunchtime meal.  The key was still in his pillowcase when he checked for the thirtieth time, and when he walked back out onto the floor Arietta bustled over and started shooing him.

 

“We’re going to be doing training in private today, actually…”

 

It was too late, though.

 

Lance already saw it.  Keith, perched like a vacant china doll in the Galran general’s lap, bandage affixed to his neck and eyes glazed over in obedience.  He was covered in bruises, long hair tugged back lovingly into a braid that showed off the black and red that decorated his neck. The Galran general placed his hand possessively on Keith’s stomach, and Lance saw red.

 

Hands were pulling him, then.  He could feel his collar shocking him to the point of excruciating pain but he didn’t care.  He kicked and screamed and shouted and everyone in the entertainment hall turned to look at the spectacle of Lance being hauled off and buzzing with electricity.

 

All but one.

 

Keith didn’t even turn to look.

  
  


***

  
  


They left him in his room for a while.  The colors on the walls were bleeding from yellow to almost every other color of the rainbow.  Suddenly yellow didn’t look yellow anymore, the way that words start to look less like words the longer you stare at them, like “spoon” and “trouble”.

 

At some point Lance remembers elbowing the wall hard and bruising up his arm, but it’s all a blur now, just images and flashes of anger and overwhelming sadness and mourning because… because something was wrong with Keith, and he was very sure that he couldn’t fix it.

 

There was a buzzer against his door and he opened it to see that Ellion was in the room with his handler.  She was in her pajamas and sat down on the bench. When Lance left his room, the handler muttered, “you get five minutes” before ducking out the door.

 

Ellion reached to touch Lance’s hand but he pulled it away reflexively.

 

“What did they do to him?” his voice was low and gruff, full of dread but also simultaneously devoid of emotion.

 

The crystal clear eyes were watching Lance with pity.  Her long silver hair was running in long silky strands around her saddened face.

 

“It’s something that the Galra are able to do.  It’s a mating bond. Lethyr was purchased by Jovak.  They’ll be sticking around until the meeting tomorrow night, and then Lethyr will leave with him.”

 

Shaking his head, Lance yelled, “We can’t let this happen!  We have to get him back. He can’t…. he’s not meant to be someone’s plaything!”

 

Ellion’s eyes watched Lance stand up and start to pace, gathering his short hair in his hands.

 

“The Lethyr you know is dead.  Bonding makes the carrier completely complacent.  I’m not even sure he knows who any of us are anymore.  Even if we saved him, he would just want to go back.”

 

The words were pinpricks on Lance’s skin and he started scratching absentmindedly.  “That can’t be it. There has to be a way to…”

 

“There isn’t,” her voice was firmer this time, and she stood up then, imposing her powerful presence against Lance’s frantic ramblings, “He’s as good as dead, Lance.  I would be more worried about you, now.”

 

How can he worry about himself when the man he just realized he loved was lost?

 

Ellion’s face was unforgiving in her tone as she ploughed on, “You need to start thinking about your own survival.  If you put up too much of a fuss or try to get Lethyr they’ll decide that you aren’t fit to work the floor. If that’s the case then you’ll be sent to work in the pleasure rooms, or strapped down in bondage for those who like their sex as cruel as possible.  If you don’t stop, they might not even send you to any of those places. They might euthanize you.”

 

The words were trickling over Lance’s skin now, numbing him and making his face close off.

 

“Goodbye, thanks for the tip,” he snapped, and she sighed and walked quickly from the room.

  
  


***

  
  


Now he was sure that the yellow on his walls had turned to a sunset blood orange.  He lifted his head up and stared in the dim lighting, trying to make sense of the changing colors all around him.

 

Then, without warning his door opened and closed quickly.

 

Squeaking in fear, he jumped up onto his feet in his bed, looking around the floor for the intruder, only to see the small boy who delivered the nutritional slurries.  His wide eyes and green-flecked neck shone oddly in the room’s coloring, and he handed Lance a slurry carefully.

 

“You slipped me the key,” Lance said slowly, and the little kid nodded.

 

“I come with a message for you,” he said with a tiny voice, face screwed up with concentration.  “Voltron is on their way to help. You will be extracted with the other agent. They can’t risk getting you out sooner in case it blows the whole operation.”

 

Those words seemed so odd coming from such a little kid’s mouth.  Lance felt his stomach tighten. “It doesn’t matter. They got the ledger and K… Lethyr… is…”

 

The little kid shook his head without changing his expression.  “The mission will go on, and the two of you will be extracted immediately following the summit.”

 

Clearly he wasn’t understanding what Lance was saying.  “Lethyr is gone. He’s been bonded and claimed. We can’t… he can’t…” Lance’s voice trailed off at the end, his tone shaky and resolute “...there’s nothing we can do.”

 

Little eyes widened beneath him, making the kid look horrified.  

 

Backtracking a little bit, Lance asked, “What’s your name anyway, kid?”

 

“Snicker,” the child said with a small voice, and Lance’s immediate first thought was that he needed to get Snicker a Snickers bar from earth ASAP.  

 

“Okay, Snicker, I need you to tell whoever your contact is that I’ve been brought into their service and that Lethyr has been bought and mated.  It might change how they want this plan to go.”

 

The little kid’s lower lip trembled.  “I can get that message back to them. On the day of the summit you’ll need the key to help you escape.  If you insert it into the side of your collar it will release you, but will also send an emergency message to the handlers that one of the slaves has escaped and put the place into lockdown.  You can’t do that until the extraction has already begun, after the summit is over.”

 

Looking nervous that he might have forgotten anything, the little kid skittered from the room.

 

He pulled the tiny key out of his pillowcase, studying it carefully.  He could feel a groove along the smooth metal of his collar where a key might be inserted.  Swallowing thickly, he had the temptation to take it off now and fuck everyone else, but Keith had given up too much for this mission to fail now.

 

“Don’t worry, Keith,” Lance’s hand tightened over the tiny metal held tightly in his fist, “I’ll finish what you started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun DUNNNNNNN
> 
> This fic should be completed within the next two weeks, so stay tuned!!!
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics!!! I've got a few, including another series with Klance, and a Shidge fic, as well as an Adashi fic. Also, my mother fandom for this account is YOI, so if you are interested you can check out my gay ice skater fics!


	12. Snicker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the summit arrives, and the clock is running out for Lance to save Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello hello! 
> 
> I'm so honored and overwhelmed with how many people have hopped on this story train with me? Knowing that you guys are on the edge of your seats and that I wrote something worthwhile of your time is truly humbling. Thank you to the stars and back<3
> 
> So I'm just doing a little bit of editing on the 14th chapter and now I can say that I have an epilogue also! I'm not sure if I should post it as a 15th chapter or a separate fic in the series, so let me know in the comments if you feel strongly one way or the other!
> 
> WARNING: this fic deals largely with forced sex work and sexual slavery. Forced sex is rape, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This fic does not excuse the actions done by the villains and in fact will work to dismantle the establishment altogether. Be prepared to deal with consent issues and dark themes.
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

 

 

After leaving Lance  behind in his room, Snicker ran off back to the children’s wing.  His little feet carried him quickly, and he managed to get back to their bunks just in time for Ganus to duck underneath his blanket.  The blue glow illuminated all of their faces in the darkness.

 

It was Lance’s communicator that was glowing secretly beneath all of the blankets.  The children had been watching what was occurring from the wings since day one, seeing what happened to Lethyr and Lance both, no more than a shadow that had been lying in wait to help.  

 

While all of the drama had been going on throughout the rest of the casino, those who were best to be “invisible” had completed that objective.  The children were mostly ignored and used as janitors or communicating between members of the staff, completely forgotten and dismissed to the sidelines.  

 

Underneath the bed in the far corner, buried under blankets and pillows to keep it from being spotted, was a thick cube-shaped book that contained the entirety of the ledger.

 

They had snuck into Lance’s room while he was out and retrieved the communicator and the ledger to keep them safe.  Lethyr had told Snicker that Lance might be targeted, and needed these things to be kept safe in case his room got searched.

 

It was easy enough to slip in and steal the two objects.  They just ducked around legs and no one paid them any mind.

 

Ganus’ pink hair was staticky on the top of the blanket over his head as Allura’s face came into view on the communicator.

 

“Did you get the message to Lance and Keith?” 

 

Her voice was regal and accented in an odd way, and Ganus peeked out from under the blanket at Snicker, who came to crowd into the screen with him.

 

“I got it to Lance,” Snicker frowned, “but he said something about Mr. Lele being bonded.”

 

There was silence on the line as the princess turned pale as a ghost, then it slowly transitioned to a nauseous green.

 

“What did he say, exactly?” her words were measured, and Ganus knew that whatever had happened was a big deal, and that something was irreparably wrong.

 

“He said that Mr. Lele had been sold to a Galran soldier,” Snicker said gravely, and Ganus’s eyes widened.

 

“I saw him on the floor.  He had a bandage on his neck and he didn’t recognize me,” the wide eyes of the boy suddenly started to tear up.  “Is he… going to be okay?”

 

There was a split second where Allura cleared her throat on the other end.  There was movement and talking amongst the other members of Voltron who were in their control room.

 

“We’ll get him out safe and sound, don’t worry,” she said forcefully, making meaningful eye contact with both of them.  “How are you doing with the other components to the plan?”

 

“Lance has the collar key.  He knows that he can’t use it until he gets the signal.”

 

Snicker looked so determined, like he’d matured years in only a few days, and Ganus was left feeling a little taken aback by and saddened by the progression.

 

“Good work gentleman.  We’ll be in contact shortly to go over the plan for tomorrow.”  Allura clicked her screen off, and Ganus shoved the communicator under his mattress so that it was safe and hidden.

  
  


***

  
  


When Lance went out onto the floor the next morning, knowing that the summit would be later that afternoon, he immediately gravitated towards the side of the room Keith was on.  Jovak was holding him possessively, but Keith didn’t have a leash on anymore. What was more disarming was that Keith didn’t have a collar on anymore, either.

 

The bite had turned him docile enough that he didn’t need anything to contain him.

 

Lance was eyeing up the two of them from across the room, stomach twisting into angry knots, when he felt a hand take his hand and spin him around.

 

It was Sylvia.  He could see the panic in her eyes but she kept her body language calm and unhurried.

 

She leaned forward in just the right way so that only he could hear her.  “How did this happen?”

 

Lance sighed, and she pushed him back onto the couch nearby, next to a couple of other escorts giving lap dances.  She started moving her hips to the rhythm of the song that was crooning to the spectators and escorts, but she kept her mouth close to his ear, and her own ear open to hear what he had to say.

 

“They had me sign a contract.  It had a clause I didn’t see that surrendered my autonomy.”

 

Sylvia’s eyes bugged out, and he could tell that she was less than pleased at this.  Then she settled on mild annoyance tinged with sadness. “You didn’t think to read the contract, dummy?”

 

“I’m hurt,” he muttered, narrowing his ice blue eyes at her tone, “I get tricked into sex slavery and you’re blaming me for not reading the fine print?”

 

She sighed with impatience, taking a moment to center herself as she dropped herself and started grinding fiercely on Lance’s clothed crotch, and more than one person had paused to watch their chemistry and the way their bodies moved in tandem.  However, their conversation was still just between them, just breathy whispers that could be sweet promises of tomorrow instead of gathering important intelligence.

 

“I’m sorry that this happened,” her voice was weighted with regretfulness, “the first customer will be the worst.  After that it gets easier every time. I promise that you won’t feel this terrible forever. It gets… a little better…” her voice trailed off and she sighed, nipping at his collarbone and making someone whistle.  Lance realized that she was in a thong, so all the men behind her were getting a fine view of her ass as she shook and danced over his lap. He’d been too focused on the conversation to notice much about her body at all, really.

 

Suddenly there was an employee next to them, brushing against Sylvia’s arm.  “A client has requested that you progress your current standing.”

 

The words were so odd, but Sylvia just nodded, hands suddenly coming up to take off her top.

 

“Whoa wait…” but she just pressed a finger to his lips, quickly shimmying out of her thong too so that she was laid completely bare.  She bent over to give those who were watching a nice view of her entrance, red and tight and waiting. She climbed back into Lance’s lap and started unbuttoning his pants, only opening them enough to whip Lance’s half-hard cock out.

 

“Baby these nice men want to see me bounce on your cock,” her voice was sensuous but eye contact was warning that this wasn’t a request.  Her hand began stroking him, but the nerves were starting to kill his sex drive. More than anything right now he was just terrified. There was a small crowd of people gathered around Sylvia’s writhing naked form curled up in Lance’s lap, her long feathery lashes casting thin shadows against her high cheekbones.

 

Sensing that he was getting nervous, she whispered in his ear again.  “Close your eyes, Lance. Pretend that it’s just you and me.”

 

He did close his eyes, arms tightening around her shoulders and trying to drown out the sounds of moaning and the whistling happening around them.

 

“Feel me,” she took Lance’s hand and guided it to one of her heavy breasts, and he started squeezing and used his fingers to feel out for the nipple, pinching it and massaging it gently so that it pebbled onto her skin.  There was a little gasp from her at that before Lance decided that he would need to roll with it.

 

He used his fingers to guide his open mouth, eyes still closed, nipping gently on the nub and then sucking on it generously.  Sylvia hissed and her fingers caught in Lance’s hair, whispering, “Yeah baby, suck me right up, good boy.”

 

Lance’s ears were ringing, and he licked and sucked his way over to her other nipple, giving it as much attention as the first.  The room had grown quiet around them, like people in the area were completely enraptured by their performance.

 

He didn’t open his eyes, though.

 

“Master,” her voice was suddenly a little farther away, and Lance realized that she had turned around in his lap and was directing her voice at someone in the audience.  It was probably whoever made the request, “Can he touch me?”

 

“Go ahead you little whore.  Let him use you.”

 

The voice was unfamiliar and Lance was grateful, but the words soured his mood again.  His hands shook as she took them in hers again, guiding his hands down her stomach until he was fingering at her clit and lips down below, moaning loudly at the feeling.

 

“You’re going to get me so wet, baby,” she used her own fingers to pinch and rub herself the way she liked, and Lance tried to feel out to copy what she did.  His fingers started sinking and playing around with the warm, slightly damp flesh down there, and the memory of sinking into her the other day came back to him in a rush, finally helping him to get up to the level he needed to be to…

 

“Take it all in one go,” said the calm voice of the buyer, and Lance felt her line herself up and sink down onto him without pausing, letting her head fall back and her eyes flutter shut as her cheek rested against Lance’s neck.

 

In seconds she was moving, guiding Lance’s hands up and down her body to squeeze and pinch as he went.  She was enclosing him in her tight heat, and Lance felt himself start to grow accustomed to the sounds happening around him, and narrowed his focus down to the one girl who was using him like a dildo to get other men off.

 

Her sounds were real, though.  The lubrication that was rubbing onto where they were joined was real.  Her hands guiding him to feel where they were joined, to gather the slick there and bring it up to her lips to taste it, making quite a few people to moan in appreciation.

 

“Master, it tasted so good.  I taste so good,” her words were directed at this other party, but Lance wanted to pretend that they were directed at him.  He was starting to zone in and out, the pressure getting to him, and before he knew it he was coming and the whole ordeal ended, Sylvia coming off of Lance’s dick and leaking out onto his thigh.

 

He wasn’t sure what drove him to say it, but suddenly he was whispering in her ear, “I’m being extracted in a few hours.  Find me after the summit and I can take your collar off.”

 

The words were so quiet that he wasn’t sure she heard, except for how she squeezed his thigh hard enough to break skin with her nails.

 

She nodded dazedly, and then he was being moved.  He doesn’t remember getting back to his room, or being swabbed all over or washed, but he was staring at the blood-orange or yellow walls with fear coursing through his veins.

 

Getting Sylvia out hadn’t been part of the plan but… he couldn’t leave her behind.  Plus, who knew if he would need back-up during extraction? She could prove a useful ally.

 

He just hoped that he didn’t make a huge mistake.

  
  


***

  
  


The Grande Ambassador was signing forms and directing his staff around the conference room for the summit.  It was a glass room overlooking the dazzling sea next to the haphazardly built city, the water so glassy that it just looked like an extension of the green-blue sky.

 

“What escorts do we have on hand for the summit?” he asked to Selma, who flicked through her notepad thoughtfully.  

 

“We’ll have the paladin for you to personally show off.  Then Jovak will obviously be occupied with Lethyr, and I believe that we have Arietta, Paolo and Sylvia working the floor.  We have two of the children, I believe, Snicker and Luffy. They’ll be running drinks in and out.”

 

The Grande Ambassador frowned.  “I want Ellion and Reggie in here as well.  I want to have plenty of options for our guests.”

 

“Of course,” she smiled tightly, jotting the note down.  “The appetizers will be served by our kitchen staff spaced five minutes apart.  All of those who are supposed to be in attendance have already checked in at the casino and are either resting off their travels or enjoying their gold card access.”

 

“We’ve got three hours until I’m calling the meeting to order.  Make sure each of our guests gets a sample of our offerings before they are brought up here.”

 

“Yes, sir,” Selma ducked out of the room, hands trembling as she started to send out emails and announcements to the handlers about making sure each of the attendants be… attended to.

 

Her fingers shook as she finished writing down her notes, hand coming to rest on her own chest gently.

 

“Steady,” she said loudly, almost yelling at herself, and her hand came up and slapped herself in the face, a red mark calming her down almost immediately and her face breaking into a shocked grimace.  “I need to be steady.”

 

There was a quiet ticking noise following her around.  A few people had noticed but no one had commented on it.  Her hand tucked into her large shirt, adjusting something underneath it.

 

“Just need to stay steady for a few more hours,” her voice said dreamily, and she was back to coordinating all the details for the summit.

  
  


***

  
  


Keith was standing in a desert.  There was a shack built haphazardly before him, the autumn sunset bleeding purple and red where the sky met the horizon.

 

He was pretty sure that his name was Keith, now.  Beforehand it all seemed a little foggy, but now some things were returning to him in his dreams.

 

Things like this shack.  It felt familiar, but he couldn’t place exactly what it was about the place that drew him in.  

 

Something was tugging on him suddenly, though, and he found himself gasping awake, looking around frantically for whatever woke him.

 

The first thing he noticed was a raw ache in his chest.  His master wasn’t in the room at the moment, and he could feel his absence like a physical hole.  If his master wasn’t there, though, then who woke him up? Keith looked around him and saw someone standing a short distance away.  Their eyes were wide and the flecks of green spots running down their neck glitters almost like gold in the lighting.

 

The kid was definitely pretty.  He would do well here, Keith thought absently, then frowned.  He wasn’t sure if that was how he actually felt. He wasn’t sure…

 

“Mr. Lele,” the kid’s voice was quiet, clearly trying to keep his words quiet, “It’s me.  You have to wake up, you need to get to Lance after the summit to get out of here.”

 

Why did he want to get out of here?  Who was this kid? If he left he’d be leaving his master.  If he left then the pain would get worse. He couldn’t just  _ leave _ .  He was mated now.  He was bonded to someone else.  He couldn’t be parted from them, that was how this works.  Just the thought of leaving him made him sick to his stomach.

 

When the spacey man didn’t answer, the kid tried another name, this one quieter.  “Keith?”

 

The name struck some cord in him.  Somehow this seemed wrong. This person was not supposed to know this name.  It made red flags go up in his defenses, and he started scrambling away. “How do you know that?  Who are you?!”

 

However, the child was gone in a flash like a ghost, and Keith was left wondering if he had even been there after all.

 

Moments later the door opened and Jovak came in, smiling with delight at the sight meeting him.  His bonded mate propped up in bed in nothing but a pair of sweats made him want to devour him instead of heading down to the summit.

 

“Master,” Lethyr’s voice was breathless with relief as Jovak crawled over him, placing a biting kiss to his neck, just under the soreness of the bonding mark.

 

“We have to get ready for the summit soon.  I’ve brought you an outfit to wear,” he took a box off of the dresser, handing it over to Keith.  Keith opened it delicately and saw that was inside. It was a see-through crop top and a knee-length flowing pair of pants with a hole in the crotch for easy access.  “If you want you can be stuffed full of me the whole summit, but I’ve been easing up on the mating scent a little bit. You shouldn’t be that desperate for me.”

 

The words went completely over his head.  Keith climbed out of the sweats and into the top and pants, checking himself out in the mirror.

 

It was true about the scent, Keith noticed.  It was still there but it was less intense. He still felt drawn to his mate and wanted to be close to him, but it wasn’t a desperate scramble for his cock anymore, just a desire to be close and safe by his side.  The small child from earlier blipped from his memory suddenly, gone like a snowflake falling to a still warm earth.

  
  


***

  
  


Sylvia decided somewhere in the first hour that the content of this leadership summit regarding the state of sex trafficking in this area of the galaxy was  _ the most boring _ topic she’d ever heard.

 

She was sitting propped up on a Galra’s lap, his hand possessively sliding up and down her back and ass.  The group was small, actually. Jovak had Lethyr settled in next to him. It wasn’t the same doll-like possession as before.  In fact, the way that he was curled up next to his mate was almost domestic. It made Sylvia sick.

 

There were ten Galran generals, and five Dalmites who were in from other pleasure houses in the nearby systems.  They were talking mostly about distribution and quality services and customer feedback and blah blah blah blah… Sylvia didn’t want to listen to the minutia of coordinating the atrocity that was their business.

 

Lance was sitting in the lap of one of the Galran generals, but he was far too distracted talking about what planets that quality escorts hail from to touch him much at all.  Lance was wound tight as a bowstring, and Sylvia could tell why.

 

He had to be delusional, right?  What he said couldn’t be true, and yet… and yet she found herself hoping for the first time in years that maybe today would be the day that everything changes.

 

It was slow in the room, unhurried.  Ellion and Paolo were busy making their rounds, and Sylvia could see the way that they stared at Lance and Lethyr each in turn, their own faces screwed up in something that looked like determination, or perhaps disgust.  In fact, now that Sylvia thought about it a little bit, it could be both. 

 

Without much warning, the Grande Ambassador called Selma over to him.  She was wearing a loose-fitting dress that hung off her lanky Galran figure nicely.  

 

“I think that the negotiations are done for the night, right gentlemen?”

 

Lance got up and practically ran for the exit, but no one seemed to care as a few other escorts made their way into the room to entertain the remaining guests.  Sylvia felt her stomach drop out at the sight, and knew that if she was going to risk everything on Lance, it was now.

 

It didn’t take long before she got up and ran after him.

 

She found Lance two corners away down the hall, his fingers fumbling with a blinking red light attached to… “no way,” she came up and took the key from his hands, holding it in her shaking fingers.  It was one of the master key to the collars. It was real. This was real.

 

Tears came into her eyes as she shoved the key into his slot.  “We need to move quickly.”

 

Lance’s collar clattered to the floor, and he held his hand out, blue eyes watching her carefully as she shakily handed the key over.

 

Her life for years had been completely controlled by the collar around her neck.  She’d been a tool and a plaything, seen as a piece of meat and no better than a sex toy...

 

Then, suddenly and without preparing her, Lance clicked the metal and it fell to the floor, the clattering echoing in Sylvia’s ear, more beautiful than wedding bells or music or animals chirping because for the first time in years, she was free.

 

Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes as Lance took her hand.  

 

“Come on, we have to…”

 

Another sound made Sylvia turn around and her body reacted before she knew it, knocking the legs out from under one of Jovak’s soldiers and disarming him, taking his blaster into her own hands.

 

“Nice!” Lance complimented, but quickly another of Jovak’s soldier turned the corner.  Then there were three, all shooting at the two of them, who had ducked around to hide behind a wall.  Sylvia kept peeking her yellow head out, but wasn’t able to aim long enough to get a good shot off.

 

“Lance, how are you with a gun?”

 

The paladin’s face broke into a grin.  “You could say that I’m alright.”

 

She shoved the gun at him, quickly getting her body ready to move.  “Good, then, I’ll leave this to you. Cover me.”

 

“What are you…?” Lance began, but she’d already rolled out from behind the wall, knocking the legs out from one soldier and grabbing their sword fast enough to swipe it across the other’s gut and behead the last one, all in a matter of seconds.

 

Lance shot behind her shoulder, and she turned to see a few more coming towards them, shooting towards her.

 

Sylvia ducked out of the way, but in seconds the soldiers stopped firing.  She looked up, confused, and saw suddenly a small group of glowing black and purple assassins taking out the Galra that had been attacking them.

 

Lance came out from behind the wall, and yelled, “Kolivan!”

 

One of the assassins took off their mask and another Galra was underneath.  Sylvia pointed her sword at him mercilessly, but Lance jumped between them. “No!  He’s our friend. He’s here to save us.”

 

Sylvia didn’t put down her blade, staring coldly at the group that had descended upon them.

 

Ignoring the clear and obvious threat to him, this Kolivan was skewering Lance with his gaze.  “Lance, where is Keith?”

 

Lance gulped.  “Did, um, they tell you what happened?”

 

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” the man named Kolivan spit out, “Where is he?”

 

Just then a crashing sound came from the summit hall, and all of them hit the ground running towards the sounds of battle and chaos followed by an eerie quiet.

 

The scene that Sylvia happened upon was one that she would be able to recount for the rest of her life.

 

Four paladins of Voltron, in their black, pink, green and yellow armor surrounding the Grande Ambassador, who looked stunned to say the least.  The assassins filled in and surrounded the remaining soldiers. Some of them had been crushed beneath the rubble from where a humongous lion head was sticking into the ceiling.  Sylvia could see a hand out from underneath a pillar still wriggling.

 

Lance made a beeline towards Lethyr and Jovak, followed by the assassins, but when he approached Lethyr backed up in front of his mate, hissing at those who got too close.

 

“Keith, baby, it’s me,” Lance’s voice broke as he took in Lethyr’s crazed eyes, his mouth foaming as he screeched for all of them to get away.  Jovak, however, was not confident, and in fact was cowering behind Lethyr like a child behind their mother’s skirts.

 

“We have the entire perimeter surrounded.  Every ship has already been powered down, and the staff have been dispatched.  It’s over,” the black paladin had a glowing hand to the Grande Ambassador’s neck, purple casting odd shadows over his face.

 

It was then that he started laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?!” came a familiar voice, and Sylvia looked to see Ellion and Paolo.  They were cowering nearby, Paolo’s foot stuck under a piece of concrete and Ellion standing in front of him like a knight, face streaked with dust and soot.  The other escorts, including Arietta and Reggie, must have run.

 

Three things happened then, very quickly; so quickly that it was almost instantaneous.

 

Selma ripped off her dress, and there was a large set of charges strapped to her chest, her hands shaking as the paladins all realized that it was a bomb.  

Then immediately all of them froze and looked at each other in terror.

 

Then, finally, a tiny boy crawled over the rubble with another blinking key, unlocking Ellion and Paolo’s collars immediately.

 

The loud ticking noise from the bomb was echoing around the ruined hall, and the Grande Ambassador was laughing.

 

“This bomb can take out the entire compound.  If anyone moves, she’ll set it off.”

 

It could take out the entire compound.  That meant everyone in the room and every escort and every child and every Galran soldier.

 

They were all going to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...sorry I think cliffhangers are going to be a signature of this fic. We've got two more chapters and an epilogue to go. Get hype!
> 
> Next time: all of the players have moved into place and tensions rise as the wild card bomb forces those at the summit to deviate from their original plans
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! You can find them [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/painted_lady12/works)


	13. Selma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of the players have moved into their final positions. Later, Shiro prepares to avenge Keith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> So you may have noticed that I upped the chapter count from 14 to 15 to include the epilogue. I realized that it wasn't its own story, and I got some good feedback from readers! Thus, the epilogue is now part of the chapter count. Just so you guys know, too, all of this fic has been written for over a week now. I've just been tweeking and editing in order to make sure to give you guys the best story I can.
> 
> WARNING: this fic contains numerous triggering topics, including consent issues and dark themes. If this fic makes you feel some type of way, please reach out to a loved one and/or a professional. There is no shame in asking for help.
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

The laughter of the Grande Ambassador rang out and echoed from the cracked roof of the hall and down the cliffside of the haphazard tower towards the water below.  The tinseltown buildings stacked of luxurious materials and poor engineering were eerily leaning over the crack in the ceiling.  The crack that was made by the mouth of the green lion, sticking in with its mechanical mouth parted in surprise or awe.  The ceiling was open with all of the paladins standing frozen around the Grande Ambassador.

 

“You think that I didn’t expect some sort of attack?” the large man boomed, chuckling with his blue tongue lolling out of his mouth, “Selma and I planned for this exclusively.  Bringing the most powerful players together was bound to draw some rebellion. This was our insurance plan. If anyone other than my soldiers or my men move I will set off the bomb and kill us all, don’t even think about it.”

 

His voice was rough and his eyes were casting over the crowd which had stilled to almost a perfect statuesque look.  The way that the sunset cast orange light on the dust falling like snow around them was almost like they were all just figures in a very odd snow globe.

 

Selma was shaking, hand on the trigger but face full of fear.  If a tear had run down her face it would have just confirmed the fact that this wasn’t her plan at all.  

 

Lance stood feet away from Keith, who was feral and snarling.  

 

_He’s as good as dead, Lance._

 

His dark hair had fallen out of it’s careful braid and it was just Keith now, Keith’s bright purple eyes and messy mullet that had pissed Lance off for years and the same swollen mouth that he’d kissed only days ago, the same mouth that pressed against his skin and whispered sweet promises about tomorrow that Lance realized had all become lies.  Lies were pressed against his skin and he wanted to scratch them off more than anything.

 

The Grande Ambassador stood up and carefully maneuvered around Selma, who was as still as the dead, tears flowing down her cheeks with her hand shaking over the trigger clutched in front of her chest.

 

The Galran soldiers started moving out.  They came up to Jovak and soon Lance felt himself start to choke on air as they led Jovak and Keith out of the hall.

 

“No!” he screamed, and all hell broke loose.

 

One of the paladins dove for Selma’s trigger hand, wrestling it quickly from her grasp as the Grande Ambassador and his colleagues started moving from the room with haste, and Lance felt his stomach drop out when he saw two little kids jumping up and starting to attack Jovak.

 

Ellion screeched as Jovak threw the children down to the floor.  The tall, powerful man then stepped on Snicker’s neck, cutting off the kid’s air in seconds and sneering over the tiny boy, who was suddenly even smaller when underfoot.  His friend next to him looked like she was unconscious.

 

“You don’t get it, do you?!” Jovak laughed as the paladins and assassins prepared to fight, but were stilled by the sight of the child in danger.  However, Jovak wasn't talking to the paladins or anyone but the children.  It was like their suffering was its own reward.  “He’s mine now. You’re never going to see your precious Lele ever again.”

 

Everyone was frozen.  Snicker was going to pass out from oxygen deprivation soon, and then pretty quickly thereafter he was going to die.  Lance could see Shiro and Pidge communicating something with nods, but Lance was too distracted by the sight of Jovak crushing Snicker to death while Keith stood silently off to the side.  The Galran soldiers behind him raised their guns towards the ragtag team of heroes gathered in the hall, having found the upper hand.

  


***

  


Keith remembered this night.  It wasn’t anything special, just another evening passed playing cards with the kids up in their rooms.  He remembered that Ganus had been helping Snicker and Luffy with their hands.

 

However, as most card games with children go, soon Snicker had dropped his cards and was peering up at Keith inquisitively.

 

“Are you a pirate?”

 

Keith had spluttered, looking down at himself worriedly as if he could spot the thing that Snicker had seen on him in that moment that had prompted such an odd observation.

 

“No,” Keith’s cheeks were flaming red, but Snicker just snapped his fingers together.

 

“You’re an assassin hero, then!”

 

Mouth dropping open, Keith grumbled, “What are you talking about, kid?”

 

The little boy fell back and whacked Ganus in the face, who looked extremely mussed, blowing his pink hair out of his eyes in annoyance.

 

“Well you can tell that you’re tiny and sneaky, so you’re an assassin.  You can also see that you’ve got a good heart. My mom always says that you can see a heart in someone’s eyes, and I can see that you’ve got a heroes heart.”

 

The words softened Keith in a way he didn’t know was possible.  His breath stuttered and he felt himself shake to his very core at the recognition of this tiny boy calling him a hero.  How long had he been waiting for someone to call him that? To call him something other than a disappointment or rebellious or mean or sarcastic or bitter or… Snicker had called him a hero.

 

Ganus looked up suddenly at Keith with a panicked face, and his mouth moved but the sound was muffled like he was trying to scream from behind thick glass.

 

He could read his lips though, and what he was saying was “Mr. Lele, help him!”

 

Snicker was still on the ground.  Something was wrong, though. This wasn’t how the memory went.  They played hide and seek after this, right? Or maybe hopscotch?  It was some kind of earth game that the kids had fallen in love with.  

 

No, in this version Snicker had never gotten up from where he’d collapsed, and was clutching at his neck in desperation, pulling at something invisible.

 

Keith didn’t know what was on the tiny boy that was causing him to choke, but Keith knew that he needed to get it off of him as soon as possible. That small mouth that had just called him a hero was now gasping and turning the rest of his face purple.

 

With every ounce of strength he could muster Keith pushed at the air above Snicker, his hands contacting something solid before sending it flying off and onto the floor.

 

Then the memory glitched out like a bad video where the transitions between parts were nonexistent and the only thing from one scene to another was a buzzing white noise, and Jovak was fallen over on rubble below him, screaming at a broken leg.

 

Reality crashed into him sharply.  Keith was standing over Snicker and Luffy, Luffy passed out and Snicker coughing and sobbing, and then he realized that he'd pushed Jovak off a steep ledge.  Jovak was the thing that was hurting Snicker.

 

His master was broken, he realized with a sharp and cold shock.  What had he done?

 

Shooting broke out seconds later, and Keith gathered up Snicker and Luffy and jumped off the side of their piece of rubble, running towards where he saw Ganus was.  He was running on pure instinct at this point, and his instinct was to protect these kids.  He gathered Ganus up too to shield them with his body from the ensuing firefight.  He pinned them against a piece of rubble, arched over them and crowding them to safety as best as he could.

 

What were their names again?  Wait, where was his mate? Was Jovak safe?  What about Selma? What about Ellion and Paolo?  What about…

 

The shooting sounds stopped pretty quickly, but Keith didn’t move from where he was shielding the kids, back stinging from stray lasers that burned through his tough skin.

 

Then a shaky voice came from behind him, making Keith simultaneously relieved and mortified.

 

“Keith?”

  


***

  


“Keith?” Lance whispered, his voice shaking as he took in Keith’s form, cowering in front of Snicker, Luffy, and Ganus protectively.  “Keith, it’s me. It’s Lance.”

 

The Blade, paladins, and freed escorts were all strewn about the hall.  Most of the Galran soldiers had fallen, with the exception being a small group including the Grande Ambassador who had managed to get away with Selma last minute.  The city was being cleared of Dalmites as they spoke, being ushered in droves to vacate the premises and give the land back to the Phoemites.

 

Pidge and Hunk had come up behind Lance, who was shaking now, the longer that Keith skewered him with those hateful, burning purple eyes.  Those eyes that glared at Lance like he was a threat, or even worse: a stranger.

 

Hunk’s careful voice came from behind Lance, tone placating towards Keith, “Hey, buddy, we’re not going to hurt you,” his voice was soothing and calm as he stepped in front of Lance, holding his hands up for Keith to see, “We just want to check to make sure they aren’t injured.  The bad guys are all gone, alright?”

 

Keith looked back and forth from Hunk to the kids, panicked and debating whether or not he trusted what Hunk was saying.  The room was silent as Keith whimpered, trying to come up with a plan.

 

Then, as quickly as he’d snarled and hissed and snapped, he stepped away so that the kids could come out, all of them staring up at Keith with awe.

 

It didn’t last for a particularly long time, though, before the one enemy that was left was heard screaming.

  


***

  


Shiro was known for his grace under pressure, and his restraint.  He was known for being a calm and level head in difficult situations, and for showing mercy when others would have only shown violence.

 

When Shiro heard over the communicator that Keith had been bonded, he was confused.  He wasn’t sure what that meant, or why it was a problem, but as soon as they’d gotten off the communicator with the child Allura had rushed to the bathroom to get sick for twenty minutes straight.  Worse than that was Coran sitting off in a corner, ashen and shaken and unable to speak.

 

Pidge and Hunk kept looking at each other and panicking.  They were soon searching in the castle’s database for information on Galran bonding.

 

What they found had made the three of them almost throw up, too.

 

Shiro had read the articles that explained that a mating bite was basically taking away the free will of the other.  He knew that Keith had put himself in danger by going undercover, but then the Blade of Marmora showed up and explained the exact nature of the mission that Keith had been sent on.

 

For two days Shiro had been seeing red, waiting patiently for the moment when he could take out all of his anger.  He was consumed by this unchecked broiling in his belly from realizing that Keith, his one and only (tiny and angsty) family, had been (for all intents and purposes) destroyed.

 

So when Jovak fell and the rest of the group abandoned him immediately, Shiro had started walking towards him.  The general was in decorative armor, not functional armor, and it glistened brightly off of him in the sunset lighting.  His leg was twisted the wrong way underneath him, and Shiro took his time until he was standing over the general who had raped and destroyed someone who he considered family.

 

“You deserve a fate worse than death,” Shiro spat on him, glaring and narrowing his eyes at the crumpled heap below him.

 

He paced around him for a few minutes, trying to decide what he could do to him.  Shiro kicked at his bad leg, making him scream, but knew that that wouldn’t be good enough.

 

In a flash though he was knocked back, and hit the ground hard.  His breath was punched out of him, and he sat up quickly, stunned to see that Keith was crowding over Jovak possessively, baring his teeth at someone who he considered family.

 

The general laid his head back and laughed from behind his mate, the sound making Shiro’s insides burn like a hot iron had been shoved in and twisted.

 

They had known that this was a possibility when they came, though.  Keith didn’t have time to react before one of the members of the Blade blew out a small tranquilizer dart, catching Keith’s neck.

 

He stumbled over and collapsed on top of Jovak, and the ragtag group of rescuers stood atop their ruined battlefield, not quite sure whether they could call that day a win.

  


***

  


All the escorts except Selma were released.  It turned out that the ledger had been swiped by Snicker, not the Grande Ambassador, who handed it over to Lance with his smile reaching from ear to ear.

 

“Mr. Lele told me to keep it safe and I did!” he puffed out his chest at Lance while on the castle, flying away from Phoem as fast as possible.  

 

So Lance stood up on a podium and an entire hall of people fell silent, their eyes staring up in wonder at Lance, who was still dressed in his escort garb, called out over them, “You are no longer escorts today.  Today, you are free. Today we’re going to set a course to take each and every one of you home. Keith, or Lethyr, sacrificed everything to get this job completed to help free all of you.”

 

His words backed up in his throat as he stared over the crowd of waiting and sad and curious faces, knowing that each one of them would have a chance at a new life now that Keith had completed his mission.

 

There were hundreds of them all gathered, each taken from different planets and star systems and huddled together like refugees waiting to be told where they were going.

 

Lance then was taken aback by the realization that that was essentially what they were, wasn’t it?  Refugees fleeing oppression.

 

He felt a soft hand clutch his with solidarity, Sylvia looking up at Lance with kind eyes and a gentle smile.

 

“Let’s take a walk, yeah?”

 

They could pretend like they weren’t headed where they were, but they both knew that before long they would end up…

 

...in a room with a few members of the Blade and Shiro pacing around, Allura studying old Altean texts and two figures heavily sedated in healing pods.  They were suspended in animation, both of their faces lapsed into peace.

 

“How do you undo a mating bond?!” Shiro threw the book he’d been skimming at the wall, and the member of the Blade that was closest grimaced.

 

“There is no way to undo one.  It’s permanent. If we kill Jovak, we run the risk of Keith dying from the pain of it breaking.  The only thing that… no, it would only make things worse," a dark look passed the Blade's face.

 

“What?!” Shiro was frantic and Lance found himself coming up behind their leader with hope in his eyes.

 

“When wanting to mate with someone new, the person carrying the bite could be bitten by a new mate in the same place.  The problem is that it’d transfer the control to whoever took the next bite.”

 

“No,” Lance said without even giving it a second thought.  “Try something else.”

 

Silently, the group continued on their search.

 

***

  


Keith could feel something chasing him.  

 

It was a monster of shadow, and he was darting around as a tiny light in the ever-present grey.  His quick movements were being overshadowed by the darkness’ ability to bend and shape itself to whichever way Keith darted.  

 

Eventually, he’d had enough of the chase.

 

Something metal was in his hand, then.  A sharp cold, a thin, singing scalpel.

 

Something warm was washing over him, now, like a wave of overheated water that rushed out of…

 

Keith dropped the knife, staggering back as his whole body lit up with pain, screaming bloody murder as he collapsed in front of Jovak.  The Galran soldier whose throat had been slashed open and was dripping onto the floor.  The Galran soldier that Keith had just killed.

 

When had his reality started to glimmer on the edges like a dream?  When had the waking world started to lose its substance? Was any of this even real?  Was Keith even real?

 

Then the realest thing he ever felt swept over him.  This was pain like Keith had never experienced, like a wall that was crashing into him and not giving him room to breathe or think or… anything.

 

It was pain like death.

  


***

  


Keith felt himself swimming in and out of consciousness, and at some point he was suddenly standing in front of the black lion, which was looking down at him curiously.

 

_What has happened to you, little one?_

 

Keith grimaced, turning to look away.  “I’m sorry. I’ve let you down. I’m broken, now.  It’s just more proof for why I was never meant to be your paladin.”

 

The lion couldn’t express emotion, but Keith could feel a rush of disapproval at the words.

 

_You were always meant to be my paladin little one, even if you needed to go away for a little while.  Nothing can make you unworthy to wear your armor. I chose you, and nothing you can do will change your destiny._

 

Suddenly Keith felt a presence behind him, and he turned, eyes wide as he took in Ellion, her silvery form almost fittingly ethereal in this odd plane.

 

“What are you doing here?  This is the black paladin’s sacred land,” Keith didn’t like the way her eyes softened at the sight of him.  It made him feel small.

 

“I won’t stay for long,” she said, voice already sounding like it was coming from so far away.  “I won’t get in the way of your destiny.”

 

Then, as quick as a wink she was gone.

 

Keith awoke with a start, heart beating fast and letting out a wounded yelp.

 

“Keith!  Keith, calm down, it’s alright…” Shiro rushed over, kneeling next to the man who started shaking uncontrollably, feeling unbelievably empty.

 

“Shiro?” he whispered, tears falling into his lap, “Shiro, am I in the castle?”

 

Laughing wetly, Shiro hugged Keith to him, folding his tiny body into strong arms.  “Yeah, you are. Welcome home, Keith.”

 

“Where’s Lance?” Keith was suddenly terrified, wondering whether he was the only one who made it out.  Everything was a blur at this point.

 

“Do you want to see him?” Allura asked with an optimistic smile, and Keith nodded.  The princess opened a door to the left and he heard the metallic echo of footsteps running towards him.

 

Lance almost collapsed on top of Keith, gathering him into his arms.  Shiro had shuffled back carefully, amusement clear on his features.

 

“How long have I been out?” Keith asked hoarsely, clutching his stomach where there was a shooting, aching pain.

 

“A few days,” Coran was looking at a screen thoughtfully, “You look like you’re healing.  It was touch and go for a while, but luckily one of your friends was compatible to donate a piece of her liver.”

 

“Who…?”

 

“Ellion,” Lance said softly, “She’s resting up in the other medbay.”

 

Memories rushed back then, and he looked up at Lance with wide eyes.  “I… what happened?”

 

The four of them all looked at each other with trepidation, making Keith feel hollow and betrayed.

 

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Lance asked softly, and Keith bit his lip.

 

He drew his memories out and searched through them carefully.  “I think that I remember that they were taking me to my buyer. I… I thought that it was you, but…” Keith felt nauseous suddenly, and Coran thrust a bedpan under his chin so that Keith threw up in that instead of all over Lance’s lap.

 

Lance nudged Keith over so that they were cradled in the hospital bed, arms wrapped protectively around him.

 

“Why don’t we take a break, guys?” Allura said brightly, and she dragged the other two men out so that Lance was alone with Keith, stroking his hair back gently.

 

Lance didn’t speak for a while, and Keith was thrumming with curiosity but contained his questions so that Lance could get his thoughts together.

 

“The ledger is fine, and all of the escorts were saved.  We’re sending out the refugees through wormholes back to their home worlds if they are still around.  If the planet has since been destroyed we’ve been taking them to Olkarion to join the fight in whatever way that they can.”

 

It… Keith felt relief flood him as he sank into Lance’s arms further.  “Ganus and the other kids?”

 

“We found Snicker’s family, but he didn’t want to leave until he spoke to you.  The rest of the kids are orphans. Two or three of them have extended family that we’re trying to track down.”

 

Keith knew that there was a “but”.

 

“The Grande Ambassador got away,” Lance muttered softly, and Keith knew that this was the ‘but’ he was waiting for.  The news washed over him roughly.

 

“He sold you, Keith,” Lance’s voice shook as Keith felt his whole world fall apart around him, “Jovak bonded you to him.  When we tried to get you away from him you defended him instead of leaving. Then when we had you two in healing pods and were trying to figure out what to do to help you, you came out of the pod in the middle of the night and killed him.”

 

The warmth rushing over him was the liquid from the healing pod or maybe the blood, Keith realized with a grimace.

 

“He… did he…?” he couldn’t finish the thought before Lance pressed a gentle kiss into his hair.

 

“You almost died when you killed him, but we think that you should be alright now that you made it through the worst of it.”

 

The worst of it, huh?

 

Keith let himself dissolve in Lance’s arms, trying not to think of the horrors that had befallen him.  He thought he could handle it. He thought he could survive a nightmare like that place and come out unscathed.

 

The emptiness in his gut told him differently, though.  It said that he’d lost something irreplaceable, and there was no chance of retrieving it.

  


***

  


Snicker ran up and jumped into Keith’s lap, Ganus following behind with a small smile.

 

“Mr. Lele!” Ganus hugged Keith tightly, and Keith let himself be tackled by the two kids, warmth flooding into his system.

 

“I’m glad that you guys made it out safely,” Keith smiled at them wanely, and Ganus nodded.

 

“I did what you asked,” Snicker said happily, “I got the ledger and the communicator and contacted Voltron.  Then we all got out safely!”

 

Those memories were coming back in frantic snippets over the course of the few hours

 

Requesting that of the child had been a hail mary play, but Keith knew that it was his only play when he sent Snicker to Lance’s room to try to grab the materials.  He knew that the only place that might not be searched was the children’s barracks, and that no one thought twice about the little ones darting around the casino all day and night.

 

“I heard that you’re leaving to go home tomorrow,” Keith patted Snicker’s head teasingly, then dug around in his nightstand for a minute, pulling out a small brown candy bar.  “This is a snack from my planet. It’s named the same as you, so I wanted you to have one.”

 

Snicker ripped into the packaging like a wild dog as Ganus gave Keith a meaningful look.  “I’m glad that you’re okay, Lele.”

 

Keith was okay, and the kids were okay, and they all made it out in one piece.

 

Maybe it was going to be okay...

  


***

  


Keith was about to knock on the door to Ellion’s med bay when he realized that the door was propped open.  It was pristine and straightened up, and if he didn’t know any better he would say that no one had been in the room in a while.

 

Coran was going through some of the equipment when he saw Keith standing in the doorway, confused.  “Oh, hello number two! Your friend found her cousin and wanted to leave immediately to get her. She said to tell you that she owes you her life, and that she was happy to help.”

 

The memory of Ellion being in the black paladin plane still shook Keith to his core.  He was missing something, he knew it. Was Ellion really okay? What if Coran was just telling him that and Ellion had actually donated an organ that she couldn’t live without?

 

Frustrated, Keith turned from the room.

  


***

  


Lance found Keith in the black lion’s hangar, curled up and staring at the beast from a hammock he’d strung up himself there.  He was cute like this, snuggled and safe.

 

“I thought you quit?” Lance teased, and Keith looked over at Lance with a thoughtful stare before shrugging.

 

Lance shifted from foot to foot, trying to figure out how to breach this wall that had formed between the two of them.  “Sylvia called today.”

 

Keith almost fell over with how quickly he jumped out of the hammock, eyes wide with desperation.

 

“She found him.  They’re going after the Grande Ambassador.”

 

Bright purple eyes widened, and Keith felt his whole body vibrate with the knowledge that he was going on a hunt.

 

Lance looked troubled, thought, so Keith touched his chin gently.  “What is it?”

 

“I… I was only an escort for two days and I still can’t bear the nightmares.  How did you do it for so long? How were you able to… stay so strong…” Lance’s words started dissolving as his shaking hands were taken up by Keith and cradled to his chest.  

 

“It’s horrible.  Usually I try not to think about it.  Also, knowing that I’m going to rip out the Grande Ambassador’s guts in a few short hours definitely helps.”

 

Lance’s expression went from sad to mortified as Keith pushed passed him, eyes gleaming with vengeance.

 

“Keith!  You can’t mean that, I know you hate him but…”

 

The paladin turned on his heels, laughing without humor and throwing his hands into the air in exasperation.  “You don’t know anything, Lance. Do you know how many times he raped me? Do you know that he killed my handler when he thought you and I were getting too close?  Did you know that he sold me to Jovak knowing full well what was in the cards for me? He… I don’t remember much about being bonded but what I do remember is…” Keith wrapped himself up in his own arms.

 

Lance felt tears start to drip down his cheek.  “Keith…” he came up and encircled the smaller man in a tight hug, “You’re right.  I don’t know what you’ve been through. I’m sorry.”

 

He was shaking now, though, leaning heavily into Lance’s embrace.  Lance ran a chapped hand through his long dark hair, as Keith whispered, “I felt like I wasn’t even myself.  It was like I could only be happy when he made me happy, and wanted nothing but to just let him use me over and over and I remember that I loved it and it makes me _sick.”_

 

Then, in a stuttering gasp of breath, Keith went silent, backing up out of Lance’s embrace quickly with a blank expression on his face.

 

“Let’s go kill him,” Keith murmured, not meeting Lance’s eyes.

 

Lance swallowed, watching the man he loved more than anything walk out of the hanger with his blade clutched tightly in his fist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE ARE STILL SOME LOOSE ENDS MUAHAHAHAHAHA
> 
> I would love to see any and all of your predictions for the last chapter and the epilogue. I'm incredibly curious and since it's already written I won't be able to steal your ideas anyway<3
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics!


	14. My Name Was Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance track down the Grande Ambassador

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!!
> 
> Sorry this chapter took me longer than expected! I had to get one of the scenes just right.
> 
> Anyway, here's the last chapter! The Epilogue will be coming out in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that!
> 
> I have to imagine that there will be a lot of asking of questions and for clarification, so feel free to drop a comment or contact me over tumblr (painted-lady12). There will be some time skips in this chapter so bear with me:D
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

Lance followed Keith carefully as they strolled up to the bar that they were going to meet Sylvia at.  When they stepped in all the rough aliens in the joint looked over at them warily, clearly not liking outsiders.  They were mostly tall, strong-armed amorphous blobs, with a few species mixed in that were less abstract.

 

It was pretty easy to push past most of them to find Sylvia, who was sitting at the bar with Paolo looking positively chipper.

 

They’d both dressed to blend in, Lance in a pair of khakis and t-shirt and Keith in a tight black crop top and ripped jeans.  Both of them had looks that could kill without hesitation.

 

When the warrior saw Lance, Sylvia smiled, waving at them happily.

 

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” she snapped playfully when they got over to her, and Keith growled in response to the friendliness.

 

“Keith, chill,” Lance elbowed him lightly, looking up at his friend.  The gorgeous woman was in a loose blue blouse with a high waisted skirt.  She had a utility belt with cans of unknown substances and other gadgets that Lance could only imagine were not fun to cross.  Paolo just looked his normal level of calm and collected, waving nonchalantly at the two of them.

 

“Where is he?” Keith demanded, narrowing his eyes and darting his glance around the room.

 

Paolo cocked his head to the side, taking a sip of whatever drink he was working on.  “Quiet down, will ya? You’re going to get us noticed.”

 

The four of them looked nervously around them to see if anyone had taken interest in their conversation, but they were luckily still flying under the radar.  

 

Lance bowed his head towards Sylvia.  “Where is he?”

 

She nodded towards the back of the bar.  There the groaning patchwork of metal floor seemed to be the most worn down, running next to the entrance to the stockroom and kitchen.  “He’s been hiding out in a storage room underneath the bar. It’s one of the places that they have previously used to stow escorts that they’re going to transfer to other systems.  It’s just him and Selma right now, the Galran generals have all scattered to the winds. They’re our next targets.” She blinked and her feathery eyelashes fluttered prettily against her bright eyes, “You asked me to leave him to you, so there you are, darling.  Anything for you.”

 

She winked at Lance who blushed a little at the expression.  He looked over at Keith in panic, wondering how he would react to such a public display from Sylvia, but he was already staring off towards the back room’s door, mind a million miles away.

 

“Thanks, Sylvia.  Keep me posted on your whereabouts and activity, okay?  Let me know if you ever need back-up.”

 

She smiled, slinging an arm around Lance’s shoulder.  “Aw, you’re looking out for me!”

 

“You know it, baby,” he winked in a show of false bravado that had Sylvia giggling and Paolo rolling his eyes, expression shifting back to indifferent.

 

“It’s the third panel on the back row, by the way,” Sylvia smiled and blew them kisses good-bye.

 

The two of them waved goodbye back, and Lance followed Keith towards the back rooms.

 

It was just a storage room back there, but Lance saw that there were about twelve panels laid out on the ground, three rows of four.  Lance counted over to the third panel on the fourth row, which came loose when he jiggled it.

 

Lance looked up at Keith in the dim room, but the other man was just staring at the panel, waiting for it to open, his face obscured by shadow but even in the lighting the grimace was evident.

 

“We go in slow and smart, okay?” Lance snapped in front of Keith’s face, who finally met his eyes, furious.

 

It was like Keith was reflecting back embers of rage into Lance, making his stomach tighten.

 

“Open the panel, Lance.”

 

They dropped in, and it took only a few seconds before Keith had practically flown towards the seat he was in, knife pressing into the Dalmite’s throat.  It was stunningly quick and quiet. Keith’s lips were pulled back over his teeth grinding together with malice. His dark hair framed his anger and cast his pale skin in an almost angelic glow.

 

The Grande Ambassador looked… smaller.  Lance wasn’t sure if it was the fact that he was trembling, or if he’d actually lost weight in the last few weeks, but Lance felt like they should look around a bit.  This couldn’t possibly be all of him, right? This hulking, menacing alien...

 

Selma was conked out on the ground, sleeping.  Keith had made barely any noise in his sprint, kicking up dust that made Lance blink into the dim atmosphere.

 

“Lethyr, my boy,” the small man’s voice wavered a bit, “It’s good to see you up and arou-”

 

The sentence was cut off when Keith rammed his elbow into the back of the Grande Ambassador’s skull, making him fall on his knees, Keith still hovering behind him with the blade pressed to his jugular.

 

“I’ve waited for this moment.  I’ve dreamt about it night and day.  Do you know what it’s like to obsess over something so completely?”

 

Lance winced as blood started to glimmer harshly on the blade, the Grande Ambassador trying hard not to move at all and provoke the aggressor.

 

“Do you know the worst part?  It’s the nightmares. They’re the ones where I’m back in a collar and under your control again.  They’re the ones where I never escaped and was still your fuck puppet. What’s worse, though, is knowing that you did far worse to so many others.  They’re out now, though. They’re all working to take down the operation that the Dalmites and Galra have been running. They’re going to be heroes and you’ll be nothing more than a dark smudge on their history.”

 

Swallowing carefully, the tall man mumbled, “If you’re telling me all this I’m assuming that you’re going to kill me?”

 

Keith’s hands were shaking.  Lance glanced over at Selma, who appeared to still be asleep on the floor, curled up with a pillow clutched to her chest.

 

“I want you to admit to something first,” Keith’s words were ice-pick sharp as he articulated them, “I want you to say that you were toying with me.  I want you to admit that you loved beating me up and abusing me. I want you to admit that you hated me.”

 

At that the Grande Ambassador stopped holding so still, chuckling loudly, the knife digging deeper into his throat and spilling more blood in reckless abandon of all reason.

 

“You weren’t special, Lethyr.  You were just a toy: easily replaceable and interesting to play around with.  The fun didn’t last forever, though, and then you were just another broken doll that I threw to the dogs…”

 

The knife sliced clean through his throat, blood spilling out in a wet waterfall onto the floor.

 

Keith pushed past Lance, bloody knife clutched in his fist.  Lance looked back at Selma, who had opened her eyes and was just staring at the dead body of her master with awe, and then chose to follow Keith out.

 

Keith’s voice rang out with finality as they strode from the room.

 

“We’re done here.”

  
  


***

  
  


When they got back to the castle, Keith went directly to his room.  He’d been staying with Voltron while he healed completely, and Lance followed him without hesitating.

 

When Keith fell to the floor racked with sobs, Lance caught him and held him to his chest tightly.  Keith’s screamed and lashed out and tried to get away from his grip but Lance just held tighter, whispering a sweet song into his ear as his world shook apart.

 

“I thought that when I killed him I’d finally feel better,” Keith’s voice was ragged with emotion, “I still just feel empty.”

 

“Healing takes time,” Lance said in a measured tone, pressing a soft kiss to the top of his head, “You don’t have to be there, yet.”

 

Hiccuping, Keith whispered suddenly into the stillness, “Lance, there was something I wanted to tell you…”

 

Lance pressed a hand to Keith’s mouth then, shaking his head sadly.  “Not yet. You’re going back to the Blades soon, and who knows how long you’ll be gone.”

 

They fell into silence, the unsaid thing weighing heavily in the air.

 

“Someday I’m going to come back and tell you,” Keith buried his face into Lance’s shoulder, holding on for dear life.

 

“I’m counting on it, mullet.”

  
  


***

  
  


Kolivan stood looking at the mission log from one of his undercover operatives.  It’s dim in the ship, indicating that the artificial night has started and that he should be heading off to bed soon.

 

His fingers ran up his braid with nerves, his only tick that could give away that something was troubling him.  However, it was just him in this office late at night. There was no one to catch the habit and ask him about it.  There was no one to stop him. There was no one to make sure he was okay. Just like there was no one for Keith…

 

...his fist slammed onto the nearest panel.

 

Krolia needed to be extracted.  There was a serious issue that needed to be dealt with, and an important operative that he needed to make sure he could protect.

 

...so why doesn’t he do both…?

 

He’s watched Keith crawl back into their ranks.  He’s watched the young recruit set aside all he had been through and put himself into danger time and time again.  Keith sliced throats and blew up ships the same way he’d been able to before. On the surface, there was no change.

 

However, Kolivan was the one who stood outside his quarters at night.  Kolivan’s clawed fingers were the ones that froze at the door, hearing the scream-cries pierce through even the thick metal of their walls.  He was the one who forced himself to sit outside that door and wait and listen to the mourning of his own failure.

 

Kolivan didn’t have family; he had the Blade.  However, Keith had become something of a protege to him, or even… even like a son.  Keith was the one that had insisted on going on the Phoem mission. He knew what he was doing, but Kolivan was the one that said yes.  Kolivan was the one that let him put himself at risk.

 

Keith had been stoic and incisive since returning from the mission.  The weaknesses of his past immaturity and hesitation had fallen off of him, flames that dripped from his new icy exterior.

 

He wanted to be the family that Keith needed.  He wanted to be able to hug him and listen to him tell the story of his horrors without feeling the distinct discomfort of guilt.  However, Kolivan wasn’t capable of such things. He didn’t even know where to start to act like the parent that Keith needed in order to defrost the maladaptive contempt he’d frozen into.

 

He wasn’t the parent that Keith needed.

 

The comm clicked on, and Kolivan called an agent up to meet with him.  

 

Skelt was a tall, lean Galra.  He’d been born into a family of all battle-tested sons, and Skelt had been the most accomplished of all of them.  That was until three of his brothers were killed in one battle, and Skelt realized that they were all just pawns to the Empire.  Skelt was capable, and knew Krolia. He had been prepping for the mission to extract her for a few days.

 

He saluted his commanding officer.  “You called for me, sir?”

 

Kolivan wasn’t a good parent.  He wasn’t even sure if he was  _ good  _ period.  He’d sacrificed his soul to accomplish something greater a thousand times over at this point, and he couldn’t watch someone he cared for do the same thing.  

 

Sacrificing your soul for everything else meant that there wouldn’t be any leftover for yourself.

 

Kolivan wasn’t a good… anything… but he knew how he can start to try to fix his mistakes.

 

“I’m going to be sending someone else on the extraction mission to get Krolia and try to track down the new form of quintessence.  Keith was on the mission that discovered where the Coppon ore was being mined, which is transported alongside the quintessence. He can identify the substance so you are being re-assigned.”

 

Skelt’s eyes widened.  “What do you mean, sir!? I’ve been working on this case for…”

 

The older Galran waved his gloved hand in dismissal.  “That will be all, captain.”

 

The thick purple eyebrows furrowed in Skelt’s face as his claws formed into fists.  “You can’t be serious, right!? I was there when we extracted Keith from Phoem! He’s compromised.  He cannot pull off a mission so delicate…”

 

“That will be all,” Kolivan repeated with finality, turning around to study the figures and charts on his screen again.

 

If their doors could swing, he was sure it would have slammed behind Skelt.  It was an odd thing that many planets had taken to doing, instead of their efficient sliding doors.  Kolivan was of the belief that if a door could swing one way, it could swing the other way with enough force, so where was the security in that?

 

Kolivan was a good leader.  He was tactical, and merciless, and put his mission above everything else.

 

Sometimes being a good leader meant sending an operative to rescue his own mother.  Sometimes it meant sitting back and hoping that the two of them reconnected. Maybe hoping that she would be able to disassemble the barriers that Keith had managed to construct.

 

Sometimes you didn’t need to be a good parent to recognize when you’d reached your limit helping someone you cared about.  Sometimes love was sending that person to someone else who could help them more.

 

Sometimes even a man with no soul can find it in himself to feel a spark of love for someone who needed it.

  
  


***

  
  


It happened when they weren’t expecting it.  Keith and Krolia were settled on the back of their creature-transport-thing, building up their campsite and trying to figure out what they could eat when another flash hit them, sending memories tumbling out into their shared consciousness.

 

When the memory ended, Keith was trembling.  He’d dropped the tools from his hands, unable to look his mother in the eye as her face descended from horror into calm resignation.

 

The solar winds died down around them, and she reconstructed the overhang in silence, waiting quietly for him to approach the subject.

 

When he just stood still, hands shaking and unsteady and eyes swimming with confusion and mortification, she finally started to move closer to him.  She took her time so as not to startle him.

 

“You were bonded,” her voice was deep with emotion as she felt for the groove that was tucked underneath his uniform against his collarbone, a jagged reminder that there was a point that Keith was not his own person.  It was a reminder that Keith had been turned into a breeding machine, and that for a brief snapshot of time he had loved it. Maybe that was the reason that his fingernails dug into his palms and his eyes closed tightly, like if he closed them tight enough maybe Krolia’s pity wouldn’t bleed through their still-fading connection.

 

However, she surprised him by taking Keith’s hand and gently bringing it up to her own neck.  Their gloved fingers ran along the ridges and scar tissue of her own bite.

 

Keith finally looked up and saw that his mother looked exhausted, emotionally.  She looked like she’d been stretched to her limit and was being forced to remember something truly awful.

 

“Who…?” Keith’s voice caught and he coughed to clear his throat, trying to blink away the raw emotion rushing through his body.

 

It was her turn to look away, to take a deep breath and travel somewhere far away in her mind’s eye.  “Not all bonds are like that. The bond bite can be something beautiful. It can be two lovers who share their wants and needs and hopes and dreams.  It doesn’t have to be subservience or… breeding…” she sniffled at that, “I’m just so grateful that you weren’t pregnant.”

 

The word sat sourly between them.  Keith knew that it was his human convention, but the term still felt like it didn’t belong with him.  Even though he’d spent years coming to terms with his anatomy, he could feel his humanity bite into him viscerally and unexpectedly.

 

Keith stared up at the multicolored gases drifting through space in clouds, and said “I was in pretty bad shape when they got me out.  Even… even if it happened there would be no way of knowing. I don’t know if I could have handled that.”

 

Without warning he was gathered up into her arms.  It was odd, still. Keith wasn’t used to people being physically affectionate with him.  Should he hug back? Should he just stay limp and wait for her to be done? Was this to make him feel better, or her?

 

“Was it dad?” he finally asked, his lips close enough to her ear in the hug that she pulled away a little to smile at his curiosity.

 

“Yeah, it was your father.  He was a little unnerved by the convention, but traditionally the one who wanted to bear the children was bitten.  He wasn’t very keen on the idea of biting hard enough to draw blood,” her sharp face sank into a funny sort of sadness, eyes sparkling with the memory, “I felt it when he… when he was gone.  His death hit me from all the way across the universe. It completely drained me. I was bedridden for days.”

 

Keith looked up and saw something in his mother’s eyes.  They’d been trying to fall into step as mother and son, and had so many memories and so much history to sift through, but in this moment Keith and Krolia were standing on even ground.

 

He wasn’t alone, anymore.

  
  


***

  
  


Hands were pinned up against a metal wall, fists loosely fitting around bony wrists.  Keith’s hands were bigger, now. Lance allowed himself to be dominated, allowed Keith to breathe into his neck, allowed their new height different to hang in the air like a question mark.

 

The new mark on Keith’s face had Lance itching to caress it.  They’d been in fight after fight and finally Keith had found Lance alone to…

 

...truthfully, Lance wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

 

Keith was the black paladin again, now.  They’d just defeated Lotor and were meandering their way back to Earth to retrieve Sam Holt.  Lance had gone to the black lion with nerves frayed, not sure if Keith was willing to talk to him or even acknowledge what had happened between them so long ago.

 

That was when Keith had pulled him in and pinned him, so Lance assumed that meant that they were going to do something.  Talking may or may not be in the cards.

 

“Keith, you don’t have to do anything.  I just wanted to talk.”

 

His magenta eyes reflected the dim lighting in the lion in an oddly dark way, like they were swallowing up the light around him.  Keith’s fingers tightened infinitesimally, and Lance could see that Keith was struggling with where to start.

 

“It’s been two years for me,” the black-haired boy was the one who broke first, and the words started to smoke between them, getting in the way again.  “I’ve spent so much time thinking and begging to see you again and… I’ve been imagining this moment. This one, right here,” his lips dragged gently up the column of Lance’s throat and he pressed a warm kiss to the corner of Lance’s jaw.  His mouth emitted a squeak at the intimacy of the gesture.

 

The space between the two of them was made up entirely of the distance between their two chest pieces, breathing in sync to give them the odd sensation of both sucking all the air out of their little bubble at the same time.

 

The words recalled to another memory, but it was quickly replaced by his feather-light lips pressing against Lance’s.

 

“You can’t leave again,” Lance’s voice was shaking as Keith sighed and nodded, fingers brushing Lance’s wrists where he could see his pulse jumping.

 

That was when Keith smiled sadly, fingers starting to loosen on Lance’s wrists.  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  
  


***

 

  
The next few weeks were strange.  The two of them tried to act as normally as possible when around everyone else, but once they were alone they’d hold hands and fall asleep next to each other as their lions floated further into the void of space.

 

They hadn’t talked about anything yet, though, and Lance and Keith were both grateful for that.  They were already in an extremely tense situation, and complicating it further would only serve to hamper their capabilities as paladins.  

 

So they spent a lot of time not talking.

 

However, they never defined anything or gave any indication during other times that they had any deeper, more meaningful connection.  Keith knew that everyone suspected something was going on, but he wanted to be able to hold onto this shred of intimacy until the very last minute, as it disintegrated off his skin.

 

Here, in the gasp before the breath that they were suspended in, Lance and Keith could let themselves continue to live in limbo.

  
  


***

  
  


They’d settled into their bunks on the Atlas.  Keith was prone to stay up late, pacing the halls of the expansive ship to map out each little nook and cranny.  It was the only way to make himself fall asleep, anymore. He would just wander until he was too tired to keep going and would crash into his bed.

 

However, tonight as he opened his door, he saw a shadowy figure sitting on his bed, staring at his hands.

 

“Lance?” Keith’s voice cracked.  Everything had happened so quickly and intensely since coming back to their home planet.  Lance had reconnected with his family and Keith had been there for Shiro through his mourning period for Adam and somehow it got to be almost two months since they last were alone together like this, two specimens trapped in time.  They both looked to be on the verge of speaking, but no sound came out.

 

Even Lance, the one who had waited up for Keith to return, seemed robbed of his capability to articulate what he wanted.

 

So, instead of speaking he just stood up.  He moved slowly, Lance approaching Keith like he was trying not to spook him, moving deliberately and while making eye contact.  That way, if Keith got too nervous or uncomfortable, Lance could pause, breathe for a moment and let Keith settle. It was a very odd and delicate tango of electric blue eyes searching into his regal purple and Keith’s eyes darting to the floor and Lance’s fingers finally, finally tilting his chin back up to meet his in a soft and unhurried kiss.

 

“I’m… I want this so much,” Keith’s voice was shaky as he leaned his forehead against Lance’s, “I want this but I’m not ready yet.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”

 

A tiny smile poked out onto Lance’s face, even though Keith could tell he was disappointed.  “That’s okay.”

 

“No, it isn’t!  You shouldn’t have to wait around for me,” he pulled away then.  Lance was stunned as if Keith pulling himself away was ripping a piece of Lance away, too. “It’s not your fault that I can’t get my shit together.  Sometimes I think I’m fine and then someone touches my arm to ask me a question and I’m back there! Allura is always looking at me like some delicate piece of glass, and Shiro is trying to protect me still, and you have to stop looking at me like I’m worth something more than just being a good pilot.”

 

Tears had gathered in both of their eyes, a mirror of the pain that they couldn’t stop.

 

“You’re worth waiting for,” Lance’s voice was heavy and saturated with emotions that he couldn’t name if he tried.

 

“No, I’m not!” 

 

Then, Keith shook his head, hands pressing against his weary, bloodstained eyes.  “I’ve made progress. I know that I’ve made so much progress, but the thought of anyone getting too close again makes me want to vomit.  I can kiss you and hold you but I can’t even lose myself in you.”

 

Lance’s soft hands caught at Keith’s calloused one.  It had been interesting getting to know this Keith intimately.  Before, it was either escort beauty queen Keith who Lance has had sex with, or sharp and decisive Keith who was the leader.  They had been spending so much time relearning this dynamic before they made it to earth, and now they could pick up where they left off.

 

Instead, Keith fled the room.

  
  


***

  
  


Two hours later, Lance heard a knock on his door.

 

Groaning, he rolled out of bed, shuffling to the door in his pajama bottoms and a ratty old band t-shirt from before he was born.

 

When he opened the door, he was quickly pushed back, and Lance was stunned as Keith went in for a sloppy and breathy kiss, a sigh caught between both of their lips.  It was a sigh of gratitude, a sigh of recognition, or maybe just a sigh of relief. 

 

“Keith, I…” Lance pulled back from Keith’s wet lips, his eyes shut tight.  

 

“Every night,” he said softly, and Keith’s rough hands tightened on Lance’s upper arms, holding on for dear life, “Every night I end up back there.  Every night it’s someone else. I’m so tired, Lance. I just want… I want my body to be my own, again.”

 

The shaking in his voice was so fragile, so vulnerable, that Lance found himself wrapping his arms around Keith.  Keith was the taller one, now, so it was a little awkward, but Keith was holding onto him like it was a lifeline.

 

Lance’s fingers started massaging Keith’s neck, playing with the shorter flyaways that were pinned to his pale neck.  “I’m so sorry,” his voice wavered as his throat started to choke up with emotion, wishing that he could will all the hurt away from Keith.  Somehow, even all this time later and after everything they’d been through, this nightmare persisted.

 

A survivor of what Keith went through could save an entire planet and bring one of the greatest warriors in the universe to his knees, but when the lights went out at night he had just as many demons as anyone, if not more.

 

Being a hero didn’t mean Keith wasn’t traumatized, Lance decided.  It meant that he was more than his trauma, and rose above it.

 

Lance wondered then, for a brief moment, if the black paladin had to have darkness in their past to don the color.  He wondered if the horrors that haunted Keith’s past were the trials by fire that he needed to bear in order to handle the mantle of leader.

 

Lance then wondered if he ever really wanted to take on that heavy burden, and suddenly leading Voltron became something far less glamorous.

 

His words were almost silent against Keith’s collarbone.  “What can I do?”

 

Keith was shaking, hands tightening on the thin fabric of Lance’s shirt, “Can you… I want it to be you.”

 

Even though he didn’t say what he wanted, Lance knew.  Lance felt the question throughout his being, starting a fire in his blood and a bringing forth tenderness in order to ask, “Are you sure?”

 

“No,” the words were honest and sad, and were followed by: “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready, but I want to try.  I want it to be you.”

 

Lance took both of Keith’s hands in his and led him back to the bed.  He fell back, looking up at Keith with a shy tenderness. “You’re in control.  You decide what we do.”

 

Keith leaned down and pressed a kiss to Lance’s lips, just barely letting their hips rub against each other.  The man above him was already half-hard in his pants, and his warm, minty breath fanned over Lance’s neck gently as Keith dragged his teeth over the skin there.

 

Their clothes came off slowly, each new exposed stretch of skin making Keith’s heart beat faster and harder.  Soon it was jumping up his throat as his hands shakily started to work Lance’s belt off.

 

“Shh,” blue eyes held Keith still for a moment and Lance brought his chapped lips to press at the delicate skin just behind his right ear, whispering, “I can bottom if you want.”

 

_ No _ , that seemed to shoot through Keith’s blood like poison.  No, he wanted to get this over with. He wanted to enjoy penetrative sex again.  He didn’t want it to be forever messed up by this mission, a mission that he had requested to go on.  He didn’t want to be afraid to enjoy his body the way he wanted. He didn’t… didn’t…

 

Keith shook his head, hands steadying as he made quick work of Lance’s belt then.  He shimmied out of his own pants, and soon Keith was hovering over Lance, laid out deliciously on the mattress like a four-course meal just waiting for Keith to devour him.

 

He didn’t have time for that, though.  The desperation was making his heart in his throat expand and start to cut off his airway, panic seeping into his limbs paralyzingly slowly.

 

Keith reached down and started touching his entrance, stretching it gently at his own pace.  His fingers started to slide in and out at an easier pace, slickness running down his palm and wrist.  Initially the penetration stung a bit, but the more time be spent easing his body into the sensation the easier it was for him to calm himself down.

 

Below him Lance was whimpering at the sight, fisting the sheets to avoid from touching Keith.  He knew that Keith needed to take his time with this and be in control, so despite his fierce desire to press his tan fingers in with Keith’s pale ones he restrained himself.

 

“You’re gorgeous like that,” Lance’s voice was reverent and cracking with emotion, and Keith flushed from his cheeks down to his chest, smiling through his blissed out expression on his face.

 

Lance waited until Keith had shuffled next to the bed, digging around in his pants from earlier in order to dig out a condom.

 

At this point Lance was painfully hard, so the sight of the condom made his body shake with relief and delight, knowing that the end of his torment was on the horizon.

 

The condom rolled on almost painfully slowly, and once they were ready Keith hovered over Lance, squeezing his eyes shut.

 

“Hey, Keith,” Lance’s hand came up and caressed his cheek, taking a lock of long hair between his fingers, “Look at me.”

 

Hesitant eyes now gazed down at Lance’s flushed and ready body, pinned to the bed beneath Keith’s powerful thighs.

 

Lance’s hand took Keiths and brought it to settle over his heart, beating steadily underneath their joined movement.  “I won’t hurt you, I promise,” Lance’s words were overflowing with sincerity and warmth, and the fear that had backed up down Keith’s throat started to dissipate.  The dim lights in the room made everything suddenly so much more real, and Keith’s hand started to feel out in the dark to guide Lance’s cock into him.

 

At first, like earlier with the fingers, he felt his body tense up and painfully spasm at the intrusion.  He paused for a moment, taking a steadying breath. Lance’s hands started rubbing soothing patterns into his hips, until finally Keith feel comfortable enough to move.

 

The first couple times he dropped down onto Lance there was barely any sensation.  He was so stressed that it wasn’t even enjoyable at first. Then, however, Keith let himself drop harder, and the drag against something inside of him sent explosions of warmth into his gut and chest, and he whimpered at the sensation.

 

“You’re doing so well,” Lance’s words were gentle and encouraging, and very clearly he was trying to restrain himself from saying anything else.  He was going to force himself to be supportive if it killed him. “Keith you feel so good inside of you. I love the thought of being able to be with you like this.  I can’t believe that I’m so luck-” his breath snagged when Keith tightened his muscles downstairs to deliver a strong wave of arousal through the two of them.

 

It took everything in him, but Lance didn’t move once, fingernails digging crescents into his palms by the end of the road.

 

Finally, Keith leaned back and hooked his hands around Lance’s knees, using them as leverage to fuck down onto him harder, and within seconds Lance was coming and Keith was huffing through a dry orgasm, his body shaking with the satisfying ache.

 

Keith pulled off and flopped onto the bed next to Lance, who removed the condom and tossed it out.  Lance curled up next to Keith’s exhausted form, tracing spirals into his chest as they marinated in the warmth of what they’d done.

 

“Thank you,” Keith whispered, a single tear falling and wetting the pillow before he drifted off to sleep.

  
  


*** 

  
  


When Lance was asleep, Keith carefully extricated himself from their tangle of limbs.  There was a trail of drool adorably connecting him to the pillow below, and Keith did his best not to disturb the sleepy man from his dreams.

 

He wanted to say goodbye to Lance before he went on a short trip, and now he was getting ready in one of the small transporter pods, a set of coordinates pinned to the dash.

  
  


***

  
  


Allura watched Keith go with trembling hands, her long hair brushed back into an intricate braid in the early morning light.  His hastily scribbled note,  _ I’m going to try to visit with my mother -Keith _ was folded and tucked neatly into her pocked.

 

She then quickly marched down the ship to the captain’s quarters, where Shiro was at his desk, hunched over a map and barely keeping his eyes open.

 

When she came in with a grave expression, Shiro’s dark eyes narrowed in on her.  “What happened?”

 

“I don’t know, exactly, but Keith left,” Allura hands were balled into fists at her sides, “I think I can guess, though. He said he’s going to visit his mom, but… it’s about time that he found out the truth.”

 

Lips parting in distress, Shiro’s exhaustion was shed in seconds.  “What if he doesn’t come back?”

 

Shaking her head, Allura pressed the heels of her palms against her bloodshot eyes.  “We have to believe that he will come back. We have to have faith that he will still fulfill his destiny.  We have to… I don’t even know, Shiro. We just need to hope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's the truth?!?!?! What are they hiding from Keith? Are Lance and Keith finally able to move past the discomfort of Keith's trauma? Come back for the epilogue to find out!
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! I've got some good YOI and Voltron fics for your reading pleasure


	15. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback reveals a startling truth. Later, Keith starts to find peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe that we've gotten to the end, folks. This fic started out as one thing, but it quickly morphed into something new, intense, and exciting. Writing something like this can have a huge positive impact on not only my own creativity and writing process, but also my confidence. So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all of you for hopping on this crazy train and seeing it through to its last station.
> 
> If any of you have any ideas or prompts for new one shots or other fun adventures don't hesitate to hmu. Also, any follow-up questions from here on out will be answered to the best of my abilities.
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

_ Flashback- One day after extraction _

 

“He’s dying,” Allura’s face was grave as she stroked back Keith’s hair.  The two of them were never particularly close, but she’d come to think of all the paladins as family.  His body was pale and he was shaking, unable to keep himself warm as he writhed on the metal table.

 

Keith had killed the one who bonded him, but in the aftermath his body had started to shut down.

 

Coran took a look at the screen, face grave as he shook his head.  “There’s no way that Keith’s body will be able to hold out given its current condition.”

 

It was just Allura and Coran in the medbay right now.  The rest of the paladins had been forbidden from entering while they ran the diagnostic on him.  However, Allura knew that she couldn’t make this decision by herself.

 

She left Keith in Coran’s capable hands, who just gently squeezed his shoulder in reassurance, staring forlorn at the wounded paladin.

 

When Allura stepped out, she saw that there was a small huddle in the hall.  The dim blue castle lights illuminated tired faces. Pidge was asleep on Hunk’s leg.  Shiro was standing against the far wall, looking up in relief when Allura stepped out.  Lance was the one that hopped up the fastest, though, his friend Sylvia waiting behind him with trepidation.

 

“He’s not doing well.  We’re going to run some tests on the paladins and refugees on the ship to see if anyone matches to be an organ donor in case things get worse.”

 

Lance’s face fell and he clapped his hand over his mouth, shaking.  “Can I see him?”

 

Allura sighed.  “I’ll be in the other med bay if everyone could spread the word that I need any potentially healthy donor to come by to give a DNA sample.”

 

She left, Shiro trailing behind her carefully.  When the two of them reached the other medbay, Allura closed the door and immediately collapsed into Shiro’s arms, who was quiet and held her steady as she broke to pieces.

 

“It’s… Shiro it’s awful.  He… his body isn’t healing because…” Allura sniffled roughly, clutching Shiro’s shirts tighter.

 

He ran his hands soothingly over her back.  “It isn’t healing because…” he left the sentence open-ended, his own curiosity burning in his stomach and lighting up the tip of his tongue with the question.

 

“He’s diverting whatever strength he has to the baby.”

 

The word felt wrong, bulky between them.  Shiro laughed without thinking, then stepped back from Allura, offended that she would ever make such a joke.  “What’s gotten into you?”

 

The princess’ wide eyes stared at Shiro with tears streaming out of them, her perfect complexion flushed with emotion.  “I… Keith is pregnant.”

 

“No,” Shiro shook his head, his back hitting the wall, “Keith is a man.  That isn’t possible.”

 

Running her fingers shakily through her silver hair, she whispered, “Galra are hermaphroditic, Shiro.  Keith is too.”

 

There was no laughter or humor, even though Shiro thought that this must be some kind of cruel joke that the princess was playing on him, but her face was sunken with exertion and there was no mirth in her eyes.

 

“His body won’t make it because it keeps channeling all his energy to the baby.  Coran and I did some calculations, and it’s still just a tiny collection of cells right now.  It’s early enough that if we were to move it, the baby might be able to successfully grow up separate from Keith.”

 

This wasn’t their real life.  It couldn’t be their real life.

 

Shiro sat down on a stool as Allura got the materials together to take spit samples.  One by one the refugees and paladins gave their samples without hesitation. They stood in line winding around the halls and out into the living room, not complaining once.

 

After three hours, Allura got up with the samples safely stowed in a container.  “I’m going to take these to Coran. He’ll be running them through the compatibility tracker.  I… Shiro, no one else can know about this. There’s a very high likelihood that Keith doesn’t even know yet, which means that we can still maintain his privacy in the matter.”

 

The man was left in the sterile lab, unable to stand from where he was rooted to the spot, unable to comprehend how they had gotten to this place.

  
  


***

  
  


Lance was wiggling his foot impatiently, Sylvia and Hunk on either side of him.  Hunk kept running his hands through Pidge’s hair thoughtlessly, and Lance was curled up against his other side.  The three of them were bookended by refugees, all of them waiting to hear about Keith’s condition.

 

Shiro came out of the room, face grave.  “Can someone go get Ellion?”

 

The crystal-clear eyes widened as she pushed herself off the wall.  “Of course. What do you need?”

 

“We need to talk to you about some of our options for Keith’s treatment.  Could you follow me?”

 

She nodded and trailed Shiro’s wide shoulders back into the room.  

 

“I feel useless,” Lance muttered helplessly, dropping his head into his hands.

  
  


***

  
  


Allura and Shiro were each standing over Keith, their gaze focused on his butterfly heartbeats projected onto the screen above his head.

 

He looked so small like this.  Coran cleared his throat, then, looking up at Ellion pleadingly.  “Keith’s body is shutting down. All the energy he has is diverting to his womb, because he’s carrying a baby.  If he keeps it, he’ll die.”

 

The words were a nightmare come to life, and Ellion’s eyes widened, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in horror.  “You… what can I do about that?”

 

Coran looked over at Allura for reassurance, and she nodded grimly.

 

“Your spit swab showed that you could be a compatible species to carry the child.”

 

The words swam around in Ellion’s head, loose and ill-fitting.  “I… what? Come again?”   
  


Allura sighed, the beautiful princess looking up into Ellion’s eyes pleadingly.  “Either we abort the baby or we transfer it to another womb and hope it takes. You are not obligated to say yes by any stretch of the imagination, but we wanted to give you the choice.  One way or the other the baby is not more than a small clump of cells, so if it makes it or not it won’t feel any pain.”

 

Ellion came up to run her hand down the side of Keith’s face, brow furrowing.

 

“If the baby is gone, will he live?”

 

Coran shrugged.  “We’re not sure, but it’s our only option.”

 

She thought about running a warm cloth over his bruised body.  She thought about watching Jovak hold him possessively, and her hand came up to her own neck, tinted slightly darker from where the collar had been nestled snugly over her collarbones.

 

“If it weren’t for him I’d still be enslaved,” her voice was shaky as her resolve solidified.  “I’ll do it.”

  
  


***

  
  


The surgery was done immediately.  The surgical robots on the ship were able to complete the transfer in thirty minutes, and soon Ellion and Keith were both resting.

 

As he laid recovering, Shiro watched some color start to fill back into Keith’s cheeks, and he felt tears spring to his eyes, brushing Keith’s hair back.  “It would take more than that to bring you down, right buddy?”

 

“We’ll tell everyone that Ellion donated a piece of one her organs to explain why she’s knocked out,” Allura looked over at Coran searchingly, face awash of sadness, “We won’t know if the surgery took for a few days.”

 

“We won’t wait that long,” Shiro muttered darkly, and Allura looked over at him, startled.

 

“Pardon?”   
  


“We’re going to return her to her home planet, just like we were going to with the rest of the refugees.  Whether the surgery worked or not is irrelevant.”

 

The silence in the room was palpable as Allura closed her eyes, biting her lip and nodding.

 

“It’s agreed, then.”

  
  


***

  
  


_ Six years later _

 

Keith had asked for a few days off to take a trip on his own.  Allura had told him that they needed the black paladin to hurry back from wherever he was going in case of emergency, but that he should go and spend time with his mother like he’d told her.

 

That wasn’t where he was going, however.

 

It’d been years over here, and Keith had finally worked up the courage and the motivation to track Ellion down.  She was alive, according to Voltron Alliance records, and living not too far from where the paladins were currently stationed.

 

Keith wanted to go alone.

 

The planet she was occupying was just off of a large asteroid belt, protected by humongous moons on either side.  Keith coasted over rushing blue grass and landed in a field outside of a tiny farmhouse.

 

There were clothes hanging on the line outside.  Keith didn’t take the time to look too carefully, but the laundry was swaying gently in the breeze cresting over the fields.

 

The house was a sturdy one, built out of metal composites and perched on a solid concrete base.  There was an open field surrounding it, with tools and toys scattered around. A few creatures that looked like two-legged horses with wings were fluttering about, their bright feathers reflecting the sunlight dazzlingly.

 

That was when Keith realized that there was someone there.

 

Or, rather, there were two someones there.  

 

A boy with pink hair was carrying and swinging around a tiny girl with black curls.  Keith found himself moving towards the two of them like a man possessed, watching Ganus swing the child around one more time before the boy caught sight of Keith.

 

“Lele?” Ganus asked incredulously, his deepened voice booming the name in a different way.   Upon him getting closer and recognizing him, a smile broke out the younger boy’s face.

 

“Hey, Ganus,” Keith felt tears start to gather in his eyes as he took in the boy in front of him.  He’d grown in the last few years, shooting up to be almost taller than Keith was now. He was still lean, his face cut at tighter angles as the years shaped him into someone untouchably handsome.

 

“I didn’t realize that you were with Ellion,” Keith joked, and suddenly Ganus and him both looked down to the little girl that was half-hidden behind Ganus’ leg

 

She was something of a miracle, Keith imagined.  Her bright hazel eyes gazing up at Keith with wonder.  She had pale pink skin, almost blinding in its perfection.  Keith swallowed at the tightness in his throat from looking at her, from taking in the apples of her cheeks or the pudge of her hands as she nervously clutched at the fabric of Ganus’ pants.

 

“Who is this?” Keith asked with a voice much smaller than he was expecting.

 

The boy visibly paled at the question.  “This is Remi, Ellion’s daughter.”

 

Speaking of the devil, Keith saw the door to the house open, Ellion’s cropped silvery hair blowing in the gentle breeze as she stared out at Keith, waving from a distance.

 

“I didn’t realize she had a kid.”

 

The younger boy looked between Keith and Remi for a moment, then back at Ellion, who was wandering over towards their group slowly.  “You don’t have to be afraid. He’s our friend. Mr… Keith?” Ganus corrected slowly.

 

The questioning of the name sounded wrong, somehow.  Keith wasn’t sure what it was about it that struck him.  Maybe it was Ganus’ voice, or maybe it was the way that the little girl had finally come out from behind the leg, hand reaching hesitant towards Keith.  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Keith.”

 

Was it supposed to feel like this?  Keith hadn’t met too many small children, so he didn’t have a wide frame of reference, but he was curious if staring at such a tiny life always made your soul vibrate at the same frequency as the one curiously examining you.

 

Ellion had made it over, smiling defeatedly at Keith gazing down in wonder at the tiny girl.

 

“I guess congratulations are in order,” Keith looked up at Ellion with wide, unfocused eyes.  The little girl had finally come out and was standing in front of Keith, reaching up in the universal signal for “pick me up”.  He gathered her in his arms immediately, his hands brushing over Remi’s back in a shushing of calluses against softened fabric.

 

Then his fingers started wiggling with vengeance, and she giggled playfully, smiling over at Ganus.

 

Something passed over Ellion’s face but was quickly extinguished as she smiled. 

 

“She seems to like you,” her voice sounded wistful, and Keith felt himself blushing.

 

“Mama, can Mr. Keith stay with us?  He’s funny,” her voice was teasing but it made something pang in Keith’s gut to have her ask this.

 

There was a moment there that Keith felt something happen to him.  In the years since the Blade and Voltron had busted up the casino on Phoem, he always felt like there was a hole in his gut.  First he wondered if it was the trauma that took part of him away. Then, he wondered if it was the bonding that he forcibly severed when he killed Jovak.

 

However, he could feel himself fill back up as if with sunshine.  Holding this child, standing with Ganus and Ellion in the windy field, Keith felt tears start to gather in his eyes.

 

Remi looked up at him and whined at the sight of the tears, bringing her hand to wipe them away and then pat his head reassuringly.  

 

“It’s okay Mr. Keith!  You don’t need to cry!” she murmured with determination, in that peeling of a bell voice that was more beautiful than anything he’d ever heard.  Keith felt himself choke out a sob.

 

He  _ knew _ .  

 

Ellion stood off to the side as Ganus came up and took her hand, both of them with watery smiles on their faces.  Ellion saw the recognition gather, and Keith was soon clutching her tighter against his chest, pressing kisses to her forehead.

 

Then, murmured so softly she didn’t hear it at first, he whispered, “How could you?”

 

“Pardon?” Ellion stopped smiling, unsurprised but still a little startled by his words.

 

Keith looked up, tears falling quickly down his face in crystal rivulets.  “How could you name her Remi?”

 

The laughter that punched out of Keith startled Ganus and Ellion at first, but then the two of them were laughing too, doubling over in mad rush of hysterics.

 

“It was my mother’s name,” Ellion said between giggles, wiping away her own tears from her eyes.  “I didn’t exactly have you to ask, did I?”

 

Keith looked over at Ganus then.  “You knew, too?”   
  


“Allura sent me with Ellion to help her out with the baby.  She knew it was going to be a lot for one person.”

 

Allura had orchestrated this, of course she had.  Why was Keith so happy, though? He should be furious.  He should want to carve out a warpath, but somehow he was just taking all the time in the world to stare at the child, his baby, who was grabbing at Keith’s lips and ears with childish glee.

 

He looked up then, voice cracking as he muttered, “Thank you.”

 

She nodded.  “I… her favorite color is red,” Ellion looked frantic as she tried to remember everything all at once.  “She never sleeps through the night. She hates animals and loves construction toys…”

 

Keith felt himself grow smaller.  “Do you think I’m taking her away?”

 

The ethereal woman brushed her pixie-cut hair back, throwing a rainbow of color across his field of vision.  “I’ve been preparing for this for a while,” her voice shook as she looked to the ground, “I was going to bring her to you after she turned two.  Then when Voltron disappeared I… but then you were back. I’ve been waiting.”

 

Remi was looking between the two of them with confusion.  “Mama, what are you talking about?”

 

“Remember how I told you that I was just one of your parents?  And that you had a daddy that had left for a really long time?”

 

Remi nodded knowingly, then her eyes popped open wide, lips parted in awe.

 

“Daddy?” 

  
  


***

  
  


When Keith’s ship came back into view, Lance was tapping his foot impatiently, relieved to see him.

 

It had been a rough few months since they’d managed to make it back to earth.  The paladins had been trying to get used to living without wormholes and castles and healing pods, but that came with the added anxiety of knowing that you were never sure when you would see each other next.

 

When the ship docked and Keith came out through the airlock, Lance smiled guiltily.  The two of them had been dancing around each other in public, and Lance had made sure Keith knew that he was ready whenever Keith was.  Lance sometimes fell asleep to the thought of waking up next to Keith, or remembering the way that they kissed passionately when tangled under the sheets.

 

Lance had been waiting for Keith to come to him.

 

Last night Lance was hoping that they would wake up together, but before morning light Keith was gone, leaving Lance alone in a cold bed again, like nothing had changed.

 

Then, in a literal sense of the word, Keith threw off his helmet and leaped towards Lance, pressing him against the wall and ensnaring him in a rough and wet kiss that sent his head spinning.

 

“Keith?” Lance whispered against his lips, hands running over his back and ensnaring his hair between his fingers, “What…?”

 

“I love you,” Keith whispered, and Lance saw that his face was red and his eyes were bloodshot from crying, “I’m ready and I love you.”

 

The words made Lance stop breathing, hands shaking as they tightened to press Keith closer to him.  “Is this real?”

 

“Yes,” Keith pulled back, running his finger down the side of Lance’s cheek, “this is real.  This is real and I love you.”

 

Lance felt his throat close up as he choked out, “I love you too, you idiot.”

 

Then there was the sound of someone clearing their throat.  Suddenly Lance startled at the sight of other living beings exiting the ship Keith had taken.

 

“I thought that you were going to meet up with your mom and Kolivan?” Lance’s voice was tentative as he took in Ellion, Ganus, and Remi.

 

“I lied,” Keith didn’t even flinch, taking Lance’s hand in his.  “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

  
  


***

  
  


Allura watched Lance chase Keith around with Remi on his shoulders.  Ellion was seated next to her in the common room, the two stunning women watching the idiots in love entertain the five-year-old girl with ease.

 

“It’s amazing that she looks so much like Keith,” Allura commented, giggling when Lance pretended to die on the floor with a plastic sword wedged between his rib cage and arm.

 

“I think she was just stubborn that way,” Ellion admitted, “I’m amazed that he doesn’t hate us.”

 

Allura smiled then, looking over at the three of them sadly.  “I don’t think he was ready back then. I’d like to believe that the reason he sought you out was because he knew that he was ready, now.”

 

It was Keith’s turn to pretend to die this time, falling on top of Lance with a sharp “oof” from the red paladin underneath him.

 

“Keith…” his voice was muffled and breathless “that hurts like crazy, babe.”

 

The other paladin just smiled with vindictive glee, wiggling his butt to press Lance further into the hard floor.  “I can’t get up, I’m dead.”

 

Remi was squealing over them, grabbing the sword from out of Lance’s grip and rushing over to Ellion with it.

 

“I’ve got you, mama!” she giggled happily, and Ellion tackled her in a hug, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

 

Keith and Lance were fighting playfully, and soon were tangled up and pressing a tender kiss between them.  Allura blushed and looked away from the private moment.

 

“I love you,” Keith whispered quietly, quiet enough that only Lance could hear it.

 

Blue eyes lit up in a blaze of emotion as he whispered back, “I love you, too.”

 

Later that night the paladins were all gathered around a lounge on the Atlas, drinking milkshakes with friends.  When Shiro first saw Remi, his eyes widened and his lip quivered and he thought that we was going to cry from relief.  

 

Ellion and Ganus caught up on their lives with the rest of them.  Ganus was planning on enrolling into flight school on a nearby planet, and Hunk gathered Remi up in his arms to perch her victoriously onto his shoulder.  “If Ganus leaves and you ever need babysitting, I love kids. Also, Lance has six sisters,” he volunteered that information, making Lance blink rapidly and nod.  He forgets, sometimes, that he can see his family when he wants to, now. He forgets that things are starting to settle into peace.

 

Later that night Sylvia dropped by with a bottle of wine.  She hugged Lance and cooed over Remi, flying her around like she was on an airplane before settling in to watch the rest of the group start to play charades.

 

Sylvia looked over at Keith, and the two of them tilted their heads closer together.

 

“The last of the Dalmites have been flushed out of their occupations.  Here,” she had a flash drive tucked into her blouse, and pulled it out, folding it into Keith’s waiting hand, “we continued what you started.  I hope that we did you proud.”

 

The sentiment made Keith grip onto Sylvia’s hand tighter.  His eyes widened in awe. “You took over?”

 

Her smile was gentle and radiant.  Keith could see the change in her posture, the scars and the worry-worn face that came with leading.  

 

“I know we didn’t get a chance to get to know each other, but you saved my life.  You taught us how to fight back. The least we could do was to take what we learned and help others.”

 

She stood up to help herself to some food and the wine she brought, then, leaving Lance and Keith alone.

 

Keith scooted closer to Lance on the couch, hand reaching out to clasp it gently in his own.  No one batted an eye at the display. Lance’s arm snaked around Keith’s hip, and he pressed a reassuring kiss to his clothed shoulder.

 

His cheeks heated up at that, a blush trailing down his neck, and that was when Pidge made a choking noise at them.  “Get a room, you two!”

 

They both laughed, unthinkingly shifting closer.  Remi wandered up to them and sniffed the air thoughtfully.

 

“It smells sweet,” her nose crinkled.

 

Lance could smell it, too, a gentle pulse of cinnamon sugar that spoke volumes of comfort and intimacy and hopes for their future and somehow being able to smell Keith made tears rise to his eyes.

 

It wasn’t seeking sex.  Somehow the scent enveloped them in warmth and the desire to keep everyone safe.

 

In that moment, Keith was telling Lance that he felt safe, and loved, and that he wasn’t going to leave.

 

In that moment, Keith was telling Remi that he wasn’t going anywhere, either.

 

In that moment, for just a moment, everything was at peace.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks. Thanks for your support<3

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this, check out my other fics! My klance series can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1047074) and I have a few more on my page [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/painted_lady12/works)


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